science / life sciences / neuroscience

"What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To findout, neuroscientist Gregory Berns and his team began with a radical step: they taught dogs to go into an MRI scanner-completely awake. They discovered what makes dogs individuals with varying capacities for self-control, different value systems, and a complex understanding of human speech. And dogs were just the beginning..."--Provided by publisher.

"Athletic genius. All the sports journalists in the world can't explain it. Why was Michael Jordan so good? Was it just his joints and muscles? Did he just eat better breakfasts? Zach Schonbrun delivers a groundbreaking new perspective on the science of elite sporting performance. In the course of his work as a sports and business reporter at The New York Times, Zach Schonbrun came upon the research of two young entrepreneurial neuroscientists working on the neural profiles of athletes performing what is famously considered the hardest task in sport: hitting a baseball. They had developed their own brain measuring aparatus, which provided data suggesting a revolution in how we think about athletic ability. How well your brain controls your body--your motor control--is what matters most. Following this story led to the work of a band of researchers around the world, the "motor hunters," and the most important book on sports since Moneyball. Those first two researchers that Schonbrun met are now under contract to major league baseball teams.Why couldn't Michael Jordan, master athlete that he was, hit a baseball? Why can't modern robotics come close to replicating the dexterity of a five-year-old? Why do good quarterbacks always seem to know where their receivers are? Why are tennis stars math geniuses? And why do all animals have brains in the first place?In this wide-ranging and deeply researched book, Schonbrun investigates the keys to what actually drives human movement and its spectacular potential. New explorations in the brain help explain the extraordinary skills that set apart talented performers like Stephen Curry, Peyton Manning, Roger Federer, Bryce Harper, Jordan Spieth, racing superstar Lewis Hamilton, ballet prodigy Misty Copeland, and international soccer star Neymar; as well as musical virtuosos like world-class string players, keyboardists, and drummers; and even Paralympic gold medalist Rudy Garcia-Tolson.The understanding of the human body in motion--running, swinging, strumming, driving--remains one of the most fascinating scientific pursuits. Sports franchises are now beginning to recognize that it is the brain, not just the mechanics of the body, that powers most of the athletic gifts we strain to see in our cavernous arenas. Grasping those golden gifts, going from good to great, requires more than understanding the ten-thousand-hour rule. It requires a new way of thinking about expert performers. It's not about the million-dollar arm anymore. It's about the million-dollar brain"--.

The author argues that the brain is an organ, and that the soul like qualities we attribute to it are more often myth than fact. That the ability to act with freewill is overestimated because the brain cannot be separated from the body or its surroundings, and that if we focus exclusively on the brain to explain behavior using faulty neuroscience then external psychophysiological factors are overlooked that can lead to mental illness.

Reveals the latest research between the science of emotion and the mind, challenging the assumption that feelings are hardwired into the brain.

"Presents an ... examination of how the interface between our sense of touch and our emotional responses affects our social interactions as well as our general health and development."--Provided by publisher.

"[Explores] the brain's role in creating our world, our experience of it, and ourselves; [arguing that the brain] works as a storyteller--creating a narrative that allows us to navigate and make sense of a world that it is busy constructing for us"--Provided by publisher.

Jennifer Ouellette examines the mysteries of human identity, behavior, and the forces that shape who we are drawing on genetics, neuroscience, and psychology.