Integrative Evidence for Motivation and Cognitive Control

Research on cognitive control and executive function has long recognized the relevance of motivational factors, such as rewards, needs, and appetitive drives, in adaptive behavior and decision making. Cognitive control is both central to regulating actions in line with goals, and has been suggested to be a domain of reward-based decision making. Consequently, integrating behavioural and neuroscientific evidence should play a critical role in understanding the mechanisms by which motivation and cognitive control interact. The fields of computational cognitive neuroscience and psychology continue to explore this intricate relationship, and for over 20 years, Motivation and Cognitive Control (MCC) interdisciplinary meetings have fostered the scientific dissemination of such studies of neuronal and computational mechanisms of cognitive control, decision making, and motivation.

This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of the mechanisms by which motivation and cognitive control interact, bridging theoretical, computational, and empirical research, with dissemination linked to the 9th International Conference on Motivation and Cognitive Control, MCC 2026, Helsinki, Finland. Contributions are encouraged that address open questions on the neural and psychological bases for motivated cognitive control, test competing hypotheses about executive function in motivational contexts, and articulate integrative models to inform both basic and applied research.

To gather further insights in the boundaries of mechanistic, computational, and cross-species research on motivation and cognitive control, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Mechanisms linking motivation and cognitive control at behavioral and neural levels
• Neurobiological and computational models of motivated decision making
• Psychological and contextual factors influencing executive function
• Comparative and translational studies from human and nonhuman animals
• Appetitive motivation and its impact on cognition and control
• Advances in experimental paradigms and analytic techniques
• Theoretical frameworks integrating motivation, executive function, and brain systems

This Research Topic welcomes: Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Methods, Theory, and Hypothesis.

We will not accept manuscripts reporting research that was not part of the conference.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: cognitive control, decision making, motivation, Executive function, Computational neuroscience, MCC Conference

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.