Hypothalmus and the Child's Prefrontal Cortical System

The experimenter leaves, and some children grab the marsh mellows just, you know, chomp that thing down right now. And so that puts the child in quite a conundrum, because they're being asked to trade an actual, concrete, tangible marsh mellow for two hypothetical future marsh mellows. It's not that easy to conjure up a hypothetical future reality that has the same tangible significance as something real right in front of you. Butad the hypothalmus has these tremendously powerful tendrils upward into the brain, into parts that we would associate more with voluntary control.