Levels of craving influence psychological challenge and physiological reactivity

Behavioural and cognitive pathways that lead to the activation and escalation of craving have been studied extensively. Conversely, limited efforts have been directed towards understanding how craving relates to motivational systems and neuroendocrine responses. These can be understood using the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. In the current study, forty participants with varying levels of chocolate craving undertook two word searches, with the prospect of winning a piece of chocolate. Amongst those with high levels of craving, participation in this task led to motivational states of challenge relative to those with lower levels. This was reflected by changes in cardiac reactivity driven by differences in sympathetic-adrenal-medullar and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation. This finding suggests that craving can be associated with states of motivational challenge and thus affect cardiac reactivity.