BACKGROUND: Affective responses are increasingly recognized as potentially effective intervention targets that may facilitate exercise and physical activity behavior change. While emerging correlational evidence suggests that more pleasant affective responses are associated with higher participation and adherence, experimental evidence remains scarce. In light of this, we conducted a preregistered, pragmatic, single-blinded, superiority randomized controlled trial with two parallel groups, with the goal of determining the impact of an individualized exercise-intensity prescription targeting pleasure on exercise frequency.
METHODS: Forty-seven non-regular exercisers were randomized into two groups. For both groups, the intervention consisted of three exercise sessions based on the Frequency-Intensity-Time-Type (FITT) principle. However, the experimental group also received an individualized intensity prescription based on prior assessment of preference for and tolerance of exercise intensity, as well as instructions emphasizing the promotion of pleasure as a basis for self-regulating exercise intensity. The primary outcome was gymnasium attendance over an eight-week follow-up period. Secondary outcomes were affective valence and arousal, post-exercise enjoyment, core affective exercise experiences, and anticipated and remembered affect.
RESULTS: Forty-six participants were retained for analysis (Mage = 32.00; SD = 8.62 years; 56.5% female). Compared to the control group, the experimental group exhibited 77% higher session attendance (14.35 vs. 8.13 sessions) over the eight-week follow-up period (group main effect p = .018, η2p = .120; Cohen\'s d ranged from 0.28 to 0.91 during follow-up). Also, the experimental group reported higher levels of pleasure during the intervention sessions (for all group main effects, p < .001, η2p from .33 to .37) and higher levels of remembered pleasure (group main effect p = .021, η2p = .116) and anticipated pleasure (group main effect p = .022, η2p = .114). No harm was detected.
CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of an intervention aimed at enhancing affective responses to exercise in improving short-term session attendance.
BACKGROUND: ClinicalTrial.gov NCT05416593.

BACKGROUND: Programmes for older people aimed at increasing physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behaviour (SB) traditionally focus on achieving functional and health improvements. Focusing on enjoyment and social inclusion could strengthen adherence and help reach older people with social disadvantages. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the Join4Joy approach in PA programmes and its assessment tools.
METHODS: A multicentric, pragmatic, pre-post feasibility study using mixed methods will be conducted. The intervention will consist of a PA programme boosting enjoyment and social inclusion, grounded on a co-creation process. Trainers will offer twelve, 1-hour weekly sessions of structured, supervised, group-based PA. Participants will be encouraged to increase activity in daily living. 144 older people will be recruited from the community and nursing homes in Spain, Denmark, Italy, Germany, and France. Additionally, participants and trainers will be invited to join virtual communities of practice to share their experiences across settings and countries. Qualitative procedures will be used to explore the acceptability of the design via interviews and focus groups with participants and trainers. Quantitative methods will be used to assess uptake, adherence, retention, reach, satisfaction, enjoyment (PACES questionnaire), physical function (e.g., Short Physical Performance Battery), quality of life (EQ-5D-5L scale), perceived improvement (Patient Global Impression of Improvement scale-I), activities of daily living (Barthel index) and SB and PA patterns (IPAQ and accelerometry). The degree and type of participation in virtual communities of practice will also be assessed. SPSS software will be used for the analysis of quantitative variables. Qualitative data will be analysed using reflective thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke (2006).
BACKGROUND: A favourable report by the Research Ethics Committee of UVic-UCC (282/2023) was obtained on 26 June 26th, 2023. Participation and withdrawal will be voluntary. Participants\' (or their legal guardians\', when necessary) written permission will be required. Results of the study will be disseminated through publication of scientific articles, presentations at sport and health-related professional conferences and congresses, as well as through social media and via the Join4Joy website.
BACKGROUND: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06100835.

Reward responses to food are thought to play an important role in highly palatable food overconsumption. In animal models, food reward responses can be decoupled into unique \"liking\" (in the moment enjoyment) and \"wanting\" (motivation/craving) components. However, research on liking and wanting has been hampered by uncertainty regarding whether liking and wanting can be reliably separated in humans. We used factor analysis to test whether ratings of liking and wanting could be empirically separated in women assessed across 49 consecutive days. Female participants (N = 688; ages 15-30) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry reported liking and wanting of foods consumed that day, and wanting of foods not consumed that day, separately for sweets (e.g., cookies), fast food (e.g., French fries), carbohydrates (e.g., bread), and whole foods (fruit, plain chicken) each evening for 49 consecutive days. We examined both average levels and daily levels of liking/wanting across the 49-day period that captured individual differences in liking/wanting over time. Across both types of analyses, liking and wanting for foods that were eaten formed a single factor rather than separate, dissociable factors, while wanting of foods not eaten formed an independent factor. At the daily level, a liking/wanting factor emerged for each individual food category (e.g., liking/wanting sweets), whereas in average analyses, a single factor emerged that collapsed across all food types (i.e., liking/wanting of all foods). Results suggest individuals have difficulty distinguishing between liking and wanting of foods they have eaten on that day but may be able to more reliably separate wanting of foods they have not consumed.

UNASSIGNED: The authors sought to assess the prosocial, entactogen effects of ketamine.
UNASSIGNED: Pleasure from social situations was assessed in a sample of participants with treatment-resistant depression from randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, using four items of the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) at five time points over 1 week following treatment with ketamine (0.5 mg/kg intravenously) or placebo. The primary endpoint was postinfusion self-reported pleasure on the four SHAPS items pertaining to social situations, including the item on helping others, between the ketamine and placebo groups. In a rodent experiment, the impact of ketamine on helping behavior in rats was assessed using the harm aversion task. The primary endpoint was a reduction in lever response rate relative to baseline, which indicated the willingness of rats to forgo obtaining sucrose to help protect their cage mate from electric shock.
UNASSIGNED: Relative to placebo, ketamine increased ratings of feeling pleasure from being with family or close friends, seeing other people\'s smiling faces, helping others, and receiving praise, for 1 week following treatment. In the rodent experiment, during the harm aversion task, ketamine-treated rats maintained lower response rates relative to baseline to a greater extent than what was observed in vehicle-treated rats for 6 days posttreatment and delivered fewer shocks overall.
UNASSIGNED: In patients with treatment-resistant depression, ketamine treatment was associated with increased pleasure from social situations, such as feeling pleasure from helping others. Ketamine-treated rats were more likely to protect their cage mate from harm, at the cost of obtaining sucrose. These findings suggest that ketamine has entactogen effects.

The aim of the study is to create and validate a model of the relationship between specialization in leisure activities, the individual\'s adaptation to the environment and the heart flow experience. In order to clarify the role of the individual\'s adaptation to the environment in the relationship between specialization in leisure activities and the heart flow experience. The study utilized purposive sampling, cluster sampling, and random sampling. Using questionnaires and interviews to survey 525 cycling enthusiasts. Descriptive analysis, model construction and testing of the constructed path relationships were conducted using SPSS 20.0 and Amos 20.0. The results indicate that the model of the relationship between recovery specialization, individual-environment fit and heart flow experience has a good overall fit. The model shows good reliability and validity. Cyclists\' recreational specialization has a statistically significant effect on individual-environment fit (β = 0.38, P < 0.001). The fit between individual and environment has a statistically significant influence on the heart flow experience (β = 0.39, P < 0.001). The fit between individual and environment serves as a mediating variable between recreational specialization and the heart flow experience, with the path showing statistical significance (β = 0.15, P < 0.001). Recreational specialization has a statistically significant effect on the heart flow experience (β = 0.30, P < 0.001). And the overall path of the effects of recreational specialization of cyclists on the fit between individual and environment is (β = 0.45, P < 0.001), with the path showing statistical significance.
UNASSIGNED: The stronger the recreational specialization of cyclists and the greater the fit between individual and environment, the stronger their heart flow experience. The fit between individual and environment plays a partially mediating role.

OBJECTIVE: Past research has been inconclusive regarding the specificity of associations between discrete pleasurable emotions and internalizing symptoms. Contentment may be especially relevant to depression, whereas tranquillity may be especially relevant to worry. The goal of the current research was to clarify the mixed findings regarding the relation between pleasure deficits and internalizing psychopathology.
METHODS: Participants from three samples (Total N = 757) completed alternative measures of depression and pleasurable emotions. Participants in Study 1 also completed a measure of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, and close peers to a subset of participants (N = 64) reported their perceptions of participants\' depression severity. Participants in Studies 2 and 3 also completed a measure of worry.
RESULTS: Across the three samples, contentment was significantly negatively associated with self-reported depression. This association could not be accounted for by tranquillity, cheerfulness, anticipatory pleasure, or consummatory pleasure. Contentment was also strongly negatively associated with peer-reported depression. Contentment was more strongly associated with depression than was cheerfulness. However, the strength of the association between contentment and depression relative to the strength of the association between tranquillity and depression depended on how contentment and depression were measured. Conversely, tranquillity was more strongly associated with worry than were contentment or cheerfulness.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further evidence of the potential importance of the role of contentment in depression and tranquillity in worry. It may be useful to attend to contentment when assessing and treating depression and to attend to tranquillity when assessing and treating elevated worry.

OBJECTIVE: Legume and pulse consumption is currently recommended for health and sustainability purposes, but barriers to consumption can include low enjoyment and poor sensory properties. This work aimed to investigate the relative importance of a number of barriers and facilitators towards legume, including pulse, consumption with a specific focus on enjoyment, sensory properties and a possible role for perceived cooking abilities in these relationships.
METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire study assessed legume and pulse consumption, agreement and disagreement with statements relating to enjoyment, sensory properties, cooking abilities, practical aspects, healthiness, upbringing, social influences and quality issues, and four demographic characteristics. Complete responses were gained from 633 respondents with a mix of genders, ages, usual cooking responsibilities and usual eating habits.
METHODS: UK, March 2021 - September 2022.
METHODS: General UK adult population.
RESULTS: Using multiple regression analyses, enjoyment and cooking abilities were found to be important for both legume and pulse consumption (smallest beta = 0·165, P < 0·01), and the sensory properties of these foods were also important for the consumption of pulses (beta = 0·099, P = 0·04). Perceived cooking abilities also reduced the importance of enjoyment and sensory properties for consumption, mitigated effects due to upbringing and practical aspects and increased the value of perceived health benefits (smallest beta = 0·094, P = 0·04).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate a clear role for enjoyment, sensory properties and perceived cooking abilities in legume and pulse consumption and suggest benefits for increasing cooking abilities for improved legume and pulse consumption, as result of both direct and indirect effects.

Groove, or the pleasurable urge to move to music, offers unique insight into the relationship between emotion and action. The predictive coding of music model posits that groove is linked to predictions of music formed over time, with stimuli of moderate complexity rated as most pleasurable and likely to engender movement. At the same time, listeners vary in the pleasure they derive from music listening: individuals with musical anhedonia report reduced pleasure during music listening despite no impairments in music perception and no general anhedonia. Little is known about musical anhedonics\' subjective experience of groove. Here we examined the relationship between groove and music reward sensitivity. Participants (n = 287) heard drum-breaks that varied in perceived complexity, and rated each for pleasure and wanting to move. Musical anhedonics (n = 13) had significantly lower ratings compared to controls (n = 13) matched on music perception abilities and general anhedonia. However, both groups demonstrated the classic inverted-U relationship between ratings of pleasure & move and stimulus complexity, with ratings peaking for intermediately complex stimuli. Across our entire sample, pleasure ratings were most strongly related with music reward sensitivity for highly complex stimuli (i.e., there was an interaction between music reward sensitivity and stimulus complexity). Finally, the sensorimotor subscale of music reward was uniquely associated with move, but not pleasure, ratings above and beyond the five other dimensions of musical reward. Results highlight the multidimensional nature of reward sensitivity and suggest that pleasure and wanting to move are driven by overlapping but separable mechanisms.

Reminiscence-based interventions focus on recalling autobiographical memories and reflective reasoning to develop a healthy and adaptive view of oneself and one\'s life. This study aimed to replicate the effects of a three-session, group-based, positive-memory version of cognitive-reminiscence therapy (CRT) on psychological resources and mental well-being and extend the findings to anticipated pleasure. The participants (N = 75, Mage = 43.7 (SD = 16.7), 60% females) were randomised to CRT or control group. Anticipated pleasure, psychological resources (schemas of positive self-esteem, self-efficacy, meaning in life, optimism), mental well-being (depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms) and theorised change processes (automatic negative thoughts, awareness of narrative identity) were assessed. Relative to the control group, the CRT group reported significantly higher anticipated pleasure (d = 0.76-0.93) and psychological resources of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and optimism (d\'s = 0.58-0.99) at post-CRT and follow-up, and lower depressive symptoms post-CRT and at follow-up (d = 0.56-0.67). Findings on meaning in life and negative automatic thinking were partially replicated. This study replicates findings of the effectiveness of this intervention for improving psychological resources such as self-worth, confidence and optimism and depressive symptoms, and indicates additional effects on anticipated pleasure. CRT may serve as a standalone intervention, or as an adjunct \"memory booster\" for interventions focused on future thinking and related anticipated reward.

BACKGROUND: Although there is potential for the menstrual cycle to impact psychophysiological responses to exercise, there has been a paucity of studies investigating this aspect, specifically in the context of high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study aimed to examine the psychophysiological responses to HIIT over the menstrual cycle.
METHODS: Twenty-three healthy and physically active young women were recruited. Each woman completed a cycle ergometer HIIT session in the menstrual, follicular, and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle in a random order. Psychophysiological variables of interest were collected at baseline, and during and after exercise. Primary variables of interest were anxiety, mood, motivation, enjoyment, arousal, affect, and menstrual distress.
RESULTS: Higher pain, water retention, behavior change (related to social interactions, eating habits, and self-performance), and autonomic reactions (consisting of nausea, dizziness, hot flashes, and cold sweats) were observed before HIIT during the menstrual phase compared with the follicular phase ( P < 0.05). Participants exhibited worse psychological responses to HIIT sessions during the menstrual phase, followed by the luteal phase. Findings also noted participants arrived to the laboratory with lower motivation to initiate HIIT sessions during the luteal and menstrual phases compared with the follicular phase. This difference was observed before and during HIIT. Motivation and depressive symptoms showed a significant reduction from pre-HIIT to post-HIIT ( P < 0.05), regardless of menstrual phase.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings revealed that the menstrual cycle had a significant impact on psychophysiological responses. Moreover, HIIT could be adopted to improve motivation and depressive symptoms; however, further research is needed to explore the effects of HIIT across the menstrual cycle in women with clinical depression.