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Nature Neuroscience 12, 821–822 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nn0709-821

Prefrontal cortex and cognitive control: motivating functional hierarchies

Tobias Egner

“When you get hungry enough, you find yourself speaking Spanish pretty well.” This quote, attributed to African-American baseball legend Josh Gibson when temporarily plying his trade in 1930s Cuba, vividly captures the notion that motivation is important for cognition.