“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.

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.

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 Definitive Guide to the ARM Cortex-M0 is a guide for users of ARM Cortex-M0 microcontrollers. It presents many examples to make it easy for novice embedded-software developers to use the full 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 processor. It provides an overview of ARM and ARM processors and discusses the benefits of ARM Cortex-M0 over 8-bit or 16-bit devices in terms of energy efficiency, code density, and ease of use, as well as their features and applications. The book describes the architecture of the Cortex-M0 processor and the programmers model, as well as Cortex-M0 programming and instruction set and how these instructions are used to carry out various operations. Furthermore, it considers how the memory architecture of the Cortex-M0 processor affects software development; Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC) and the features it supports, including flexible interrupt management, nested interrupt support, vectored exception entry, and interrupt masking; and Cortex-M0 features that target the embedded operating system. It also explains how to develop simple applications on the Cortex-M0, how to program the Cortex-M0 microcontrollers in assembly and mixed-assembly languages, and how the low-power features of the Cortex-M0 processor are used in programming. Finally, it describes a number of ARM Cortex-M0 products, such as microcontrollers, development boards, starter kits, and development suites. This book will be useful to both new and advanced users of ARM Cortex devices, from students and hobbyists to researchers, professional embedded- software developers, electronic enthusiasts, and even semiconductor product designers. The first and definitive book on the new ARM Cortex-M0 architecture targeting the large 8-bit and 16-bit microcontroller market Explains the Cortex-M0 architecture and how to program it using practical examples Written by an engineer at ARM who was heavily involved in its development

This new edition has been fully revised and updated to include extensive information on the ARM Cortex-M4 processor, providing a complete up-to-date guide to both Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 processors, and which enables migration from various processor architectures to the exciting world of the Cortex-M3 and M4. This book presents the background of the ARM architecture and outlines the features of the processors such as the instruction set, interrupt-handling and also demonstrates how to program and utilize the advanced features available such as the Memory Protection Unit (MPU). Chapters on getting started with IAR, Keil, gcc and CooCox CoIDE tools help beginners develop program codes. Coverage also includes the important areas of software development such as using the low power features, handling information input/output, mixed language projects with assembly and C, and other advanced topics. Two new chapters on DSP features and CMSIS-DSP software libraries, covering DSP fundamentals and how to write DSP software for the Cortex-M4 processor, including examples of using the CMSIS-DSP library, as well as useful information about the DSP capability of the Cortex-M4 processor A new chapter on the Cortex-M4 floating point unit and how to use it A new chapter on using embedded OS (based on CMSIS-RTOS), as well as details of processor features to support OS operations Various debugging techniques as well as a troubleshooting guide in the appendix Topics on software porting from other architectures A full range of easy-to-understand examples, diagrams and quick reference appendices

Do you ever wonder what is happening inside your brain when you feel anxious, panicked, and worried? In Rewire Your Anxious Brain, psychologist Catherine Pittman and author Elizabeth Karle offer a unique, evidence-based solution to overcoming anxiety based in cutting-edge neuroscience and research. In the book, you will learn how the amygdala and cortex (both important parts of the brain) are essential players in the neuropsychology of anxiety. The amygdala acts as a primal response, and oftentimes, when this part of the brain processes fear, you may not even understand why you are afraid. By comparison, the cortex is the center of “worry.” That is, obsessing, ruminating, and dwelling on things that may or may not happen. In the book, Pittman and Karle make it simple by offering specific examples of how to manage fear by tapping into both of these pathways in the brain. As you read, you’ll gain a greater understanding how anxiety is created in the brain, and as a result, you will feel empowered and motivated to overcome it. The brain is a powerful tool, and the more you work to change the way you respond to fear, the more resilient you will become. Using the practical self-assessments and proven-effective techniques in this book, you will learn to literally “rewire” the brain processes that lie at the root of your fears.