Here’s the deal. In front of you is a prize—something you’re really like to have—like an iPod, say. If you want, you can take the iPod and walk away, right now, no strings attached. But if you are willing to wait a while, you’ll get the iPod and a laptop. Can you wait? What would you do?

This sounds like a very simple test of your patience but your reaction to such a test tells much more about you that you might imagine. It’s my hypothetical version of the a test conducted by psychologist Walter Mischel. Mischel conducted his experiment with little kids and marshmallows. The children who were willing to wait and get a bigger prize (in his test, more marshmallows) turned out to be better at all sorts of other waiting games, too. Like social skills, being reliable, academic achievement, even performance on standardized tests. And 40 years later, the now-grown up kids who were good at staying the course for more marshmallows later on are still achieving more than their less patient peers. Now, with the help of high-tech brain scans, neuroscientists are learning what makes these folks tick.

It turns out that your ability to clearly imagine a future payoff may be the key. When your brain processes a situation that involves delaying gratification, it accesses your anterior prefrontal cortex. This section of your brain is responsible for things like keeping track of your goals and aspirations as well as solving problems that require some imagination. If you’re able to clearly imagine using that laptop, say, and how helpful it’ll be in your everyday life, then you might be better at waiting for it and working toward it over the long haul.