From what we know so far, two brain areas are important when people make decisions about which rewards they want to receive. The first area is the one that encodes all kinds of reward information. It accounts for how much you like playing video games, how much you like being a football player (or some other sport, or playing an instrument), and how much you like watching TV or having an ice cream by the pool. This brain area is called the striatum (pronounced strai-ay-tuhm). The second important brain area is involved in keeping track of your long-term goals (like becoming a famous football player). These goals are encoded in a brain area called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). One way of thinking about the dlPFC is as a parent who is telling you to do what is good for your future self ("you will thank me later"), and in a way works as a "future simulator."

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2016.00008