Connecting self-report and instrumental behavior during incubation of food craving in humans.

Incubation of craving is a phenomenon describing the intensification of craving for a reward over extended periods of abstinence from reinforcement. Animal models employ instrumental markers of craving to reward cues to examine incubation, while homologous human paradigms often rely on subjective self-reports. Here, we characterize a novel human paradigm that showed strong positive relationships between self-reports and instrumental markers of craving. Further, both measures expressed non-linear relationships with time since last consumption, which parallels homologous animal paradigms of incubation of craving.