Imagine for a moment, a typical Halloween night. You had the coolest costume

ever, and it sure paid off. You just arrived home after many hours of  trick

or treating and your bag is full to the brim with candy. Yummmy! You can't

decide what you want more - mini chocolate bars, or sour gummy worms. Oh the

dilemma. Well, you say, might as well have both. It's only Halloween one

night of the year after all. You eat your mini chocolate bars, and then your

sour gummy worms, but oh there are still so many options. Before you know

it, you've gone through candy corn, skittles, peanut butter cups, sour

balls, mints, and the list goes on. Suddenly, you're not feeling so good.

Your stomach is starting to ache. Uh oh.

Why doesn't this happen every day? How do we learn to control our behavior

so that we don't overeat, or overdo things all the time? As we get older,

most of us slowly learn how much candy we can eat before we get sick,  how

much TV we can watch before we feel like a vegetable, how doing our homework

helps us advance into the next grade.

In the "cookie study" we are interested in learning what helps us to control

our behavior. Scientists have shown that as we get older our brain develops

in regions that help us to have self-control. This ability to control our

behavior develops as our brains mature. Specifically, we will look at how

the ability to control our behavior relates to the development and

connections between different brain regions. Kids that participate in our

study will play various computer and paper pencil games in the first session

and will play similar games in the fMRI scanner while we take pictures of

their brain. If you are interested in this research and would like to

participate, please email us at rascl@berkeley.edu with your name, and a

phone number where we can contact you. Looking forward hearing from you!