Although one third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese, developmental changes in food craving and the ability to regulate craving remain poorly understood. We addressed this knowledge gap by examining behavioral and neural responses to images of appetizing unhealthy foods in individuals ages 6 through 23 years. On close trials (assessing unregulated craving), participants focuse...

INTRODUCTION One of the proposed psychobiological pathways of craving attributes the desire for drinking in the context of tension, discomfort or unpleasant emotions, to "negative" (or "relief") craving. The aim of this study was to replicate a previously reported association of the PDYN rs2281285 variant with negative craving using a different phenotyping approach. METHODS The TaqMan® Genoty...

The ability to control craving for substances that offer immediate rewards but whose long-term consumption may pose serious risks lies at the root of substance use disorders and is critical for mental and physical health. Despite its importance, the neural systems supporting this ability remain unclear. Here, we investigated this issue using functional imaging to examine neural activity in ciga...

Drug craving has purportedly been linked to relapse and to substance use. For over two decades, cue reactivity has been a viable method to assess craving and physiological reactions to drug stimuli. However, traditional cue reactivity has faced the following limitations: austere situations or stimuli, lack of complex cues, lack of standardization, and limited generalization outside of the lab s...

INTRODUCTION Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit substance in the U.S., with high rates among young adults in the state of Colorado. Chronic, heavy marijuana use can impact cognitive functioning, which has the potential to influence academic performance of college students. It is possible that craving for marijuana may further contribute to diminished cognitive and affective functioning...

INTRODUCTION Subjective craving is a prominent construct in the study of tobacco motivation; yet, the precise measurement of tobacco craving poses several difficulties. A behavioral economic approach to understanding drug motivation imports concepts and methods from economics to improve the assessment of craving. METHODS Using an immersive virtual reality (VR) cue reactivity paradigm, this st...

The role of aggressivity and cue exposure in induction of craving were investigated in a clinical setting. Thirty abstinent alcoholic patients were divided into a low and a high aggressive group based on scores on the physical aggression subscale of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory and exposed to alcohol cues. Craving was measured by means of the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire (ACQ) and Visua...

Cocaine-conditioned memory has been known to cause cocaine craving and relapse, while its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We explored accumbal protein candidates responsible for a cocaine-conditioned memory, cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP). Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in conjunction with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis was utilized to identify a...