“A must-read for the cerebral sports fan . . . like Moneyball except nerdier. Much nerdier.” —Sports Illustrated Why couldn’t Michael Jordan, master athlete that he was, crush a baseball? Why can’t modern robotics come close to replicating the dexterity of a five-year-old? Why do great quarterbacks always seem to know where their receivers are? On a quest to discover what actually drives human movement and its spectacular potential, journalist, sports writer, and fan Zach Schonbrun interviewed experts on motor control around the world. The trail begins with the groundbreaking work of two neuroscientists in Major League Baseball who are upending the traditional ways scouts evaluate the speed with which great players read a pitch. Across all sports, new theories and revolutionary technology are revealing how the brain’s motor control system works in extraordinarily talented athletes like Stephen Curry, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, and Lionel Messi; as well as musical virtuosos, dancers, rock climbers, race-car drivers, and more. Whether it is timing a 95 mph fastball or reaching for a coffee mug, movement requires a complex suite of computations that many take for granted—until they read The Performance Cortex. Zach Schonbrun ushers in a new way of thinking about the athletic gifts we marvel over and seek to develop in our own lives. It’s not about the million-dollar arm anymore. It’s about the million-dollar brain.

How the cerebral cortex operates near a critical phase transition point for optimum performance. Individual neurons have limited computational powers, but when they work together, it is almost like magic. Firing synchronously and then breaking off to improvise by themselves, they can be paradoxically both independent and interdependent. This happens near the critical point: when neurons are poised between a phase where activity is damped and a phase where it is amplified, where information processing is optimized, and complex emergent activity patterns arise. The claim that neurons in the cortex work best when they operate near the critical point is known as the criticality hypothesis. In this book John Beggs—one of the pioneers of this hypothesis—offers an introduction to the critical point and its relevance to the brain. Drawing on recent experimental evidence, Beggs first explains the main ideas underlying the criticality hypotheses and emergent phenomena. He then discusses the critical point and its two main consequences—first, scale-free properties that confer optimum information processing; and second, universality, or the idea that complex emergent phenomena, like that seen near the critical point, can be explained by relatively simple models that are applicable across species and scale. Finally, Beggs considers future directions for the field, including research on homeostatic regulation, quasicriticality, and the expansion of the cortex and intelligence. An appendix provides technical material; many chapters include exercises that use freely available code and data sets.

The cortex continues to be the subject of intense scientfic curiosity, as it has been for the past 30 years. It is the most highly developed part of the brain, yet the youngest in evolutionary terms. It is fundamental to human behavior, thinking, and self-understanding, and a study of its structure and performance must encompass aspects of anatomy, physiology, psychology, and neurology. This book providees a unique account of the structural and functional organization of the cerebral cortex from the point of view of one of the pioneers in the field. It is a revised and updated translation of the author's classic German text, and brings together for the first time the biological, psychological, and philosophical strands of enquiry relating to this fascinating area of the brain. The author's outstanding scientific reputation, combined with a subject of intense interest to researchers, will ensure that this book will be valued both for its scientific and historical contributions.

This book presents a unique synthesis of the current neuroscience of cognition by one of the world's authorities in the field. The guiding principle to this synthesis is the tenet that the entirety of our knowledge is encoded by relations, and thus by connections, in neuronal networks of our cerebral cortex. Cognitive networks develop by experience on a base of widely dispersed modular cell assemblies representing elementary sensations and movements. As they develop cognitive networks organize themselves hierarchically by order of complexity or abstraction of their content. Because networks intersect profusely, sharing commong nodes, a neuronal assembly anywhere in the cortex can be part of many networks, and therefore many items of knowledge. All cognitive functions consist of neural transactions within and between cognitive networks. After reviewing the neurobiology and architecture of cortical networks (also named cognits), the author undertakes a systematic study of cortical dynamics in each of the major cognitive functions--perception, memory, attention, language, and intelligence. In this study, he makes use of a large body of evidence from a variety of methodologies, in the brain of the human as well as the nonhuman primate. The outcome of his interdisciplinary endeavor is the emergence of a structural and dynamic order in the cerebral cortex that, though still sketchy and fragmentary, mirrors with remarkable fidelity the order in the human mind.

This breakthrough book challenges traditional views about business, leadership, and performance by linking the benefits of nutrition and exercise with the power of neuroscience to optimize executive performance. In today’s dynamic business climate, despite technological advances, executives spend more time at work than ever before. Faster-moving markets, shorter deadlines, constant change, and tighter budgets all mean greater pressure and increased energy demands. Headstrong Performance explores the research behind the deterioration of executive performance as a result of stress mismanagement and reveals the neuroscience behind stress and poor health behaviors commonly witnessed in the workplace. These misguided coping strategies ultimately result in employee disengagement, decreased business performance, and subsequently, a suffering bottom line. Armed with the latest science, this book provides numerous highly effective health strategies that will enable today’s professionals to work toward improved, sustainable business performance—and remain at the top of their game for years to come. Colin Sampson, senior vice president of SAP, says: “Headstrong Performance is a life-changing message about healthy work-life balance, good nutrition, rest, and regular exercise, all leading to an improvement in performance, individually and as a team. A great way to bring about real, positive, and productive change.”