{"product_id":"the-performance-cortex-isbn-9781101986356","title":"The Performance Cortex","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A must-read for the cerebral sports fan . . . like \u003ci\u003eMoneyball \u003c\/i\u003eexcept nerdier. Much nerdier.”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Sports Illustrated\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy 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?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether 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 \u003ci\u003eThe Performance Cortex\u003c\/i\u003e. 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.\u003cb\u003eAdvance Praise for \u003ci\u003eThe Performance Cortex\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A must-read for the cerebral sports fan . . . like \u003ci\u003eMoneyball \u003c\/i\u003eexcept nerdier. Much nerdier.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSports Illustrated\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAxios’ 2018 Leadoff Beach Read\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fans of sport science, sport psychology, robotics, and neuroscience will find this to be informative and inspiring.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Library Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A revealing tour of the minds of winning athletes . . . Readers interested in the applications of neuroscience to everyday life will find plenty of value here.”\u003ci\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Poised to guide the sophisticated sports fan in such examination, Schonbrun lucidly explains the fascinating new world of neuroathletics. . . . The stereotype of the dumb jock may not survive this explosive jolt!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Booklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the most intriguing aspects of elite sports is that the athletes themselves have no idea how they do much of what they do, because it occurs beneath their conscious awareness. Schonbrun’s deep dive into the cutting-edge science of human movement gives the reader X-ray vision (or, really, fMRI vision) into the brains of the world’s greatest performers. It will enthrall anyone who has watched a sporting event and asked: How do they do that?”\u003cbr\u003e—David Epstein, author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Sports Gene\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“To use a voguish sports catchphrase, \u003ci\u003eThe Performance Cortex\u003c\/i\u003e is ‘next level.’ We’ve heard a lot about ‘mental toughness’ and ‘hard-wiring for success,’ but now Zach Schonbrun reveals the latest science on how elite athletic feats are actually accomplished. Fans will understand the genius behind all sports more clearly after reading this book. And they can, with pleasure. Schonbrun has mastered the art of writing gracefully about dense—and potential groundbreaking—material.”  \u003cbr\u003e—L. Jon Wertheim, executive editor of \u003ci\u003eSports Illustrated\u003c\/i\u003e and coauthor of \u003ci\u003eThis is Your Brain on Sports\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eScorecasting\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Zach Schonbrun’s \u003ci\u003eThe Performance Cortex\u003c\/i\u003e is full of insight into the next wave of athletic training, the relationship between the mind and the body, and the cutting-edge neuroscience that seeks to explore and exploit this interaction to create better athletes. This accessible account will leave every reader wishing they had known all this before.”\u003cbr\u003e—Glenn Stout, author and series coeditor of \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Sports Writing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The brain is the last untapped resource for athletes, the final frontier for sports analytics. Zach Schonbrun’s riveting look inside of how players’ minds truly work and how that knowledge is being used to reimagine the games we play, fires with the efficiency and efficacy of a synapse.”\u003cbr\u003e—Jeff Passan, national baseball columnist for Yahoo! Sports and author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Arm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eZach Schonbrun \u003c\/b\u003e is a senior editor for business \u0026amp; technology at The Week and has been a longstanding contributor to the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times. \u003c\/i\u003eHe has also written for \u003ci\u003eBloomberg BusinessWeek\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFast Company\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eESPN The Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSB Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVICE\u003c\/i\u003e, and other outlets. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eOne Great Shoe\u003c\/i\u003e, which was selected as one of the best Kindle Singles of the year in 2015. He lives in New York City with his wife and their son.1.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e deCervo\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"How Can You Think and Hit        at the Same Time?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There was no indication that anything unusual was taking place on      an early Saturday morning in August at the Hilton Garden Inn, of      Avondale, Arizona, other than the piece of loose-leaf paper taped      to the wall by the elevator bank. On it was scribbled in black      Sharpie: decervo testing room 307. The room number was underlined.      The tone was \"no trespassing.\" Still, the housekeeper knocked on      the door of Room 307 at 8:15 with an armful of fresh towels. No      one answered, so she used her key to enter. When she did, she did      a double take. The furniture in the dumbbell-shaped suite had been      rearranged completely. The beds were still made and the blinds      were drawn. Two scrawny, acne-pocked Latino teenagers in T-shirts      and sandals were seated at matching desks on opposite sides of the      room staring unblinking at laptop screens. Each wore a sort of      thin metallic hairnet, with wires snaking down the back of their      necks. A pile of plastic syringes and two padded briefcases lay      scattered on the floor. The only sound came from soft,      intermittent taps on the laptop keyboards. Neither of the men      looked up to see the housekeeper quickly drop the towels off and      go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the everlasting war for even the slightest competitive      advantage in Major League Baseball, the battlefields have come to      look a lot different than the playing fields. They have left the      playing fields behind. This new terrain was once thought to be      impregnable. Now, suddenly, held captive on Saturday mornings in      suburban hotel rooms, it was spilling its secrets. When other      teams learn of this, they will undoubtedly try to do the same.      \"Moneyball\" was that way; once the data-driven revolution started,      it became difficult to contain, until every team started using      advanced analytics to discover new players or rediscover old ones.      Then the battle had to be moved someplace else. Those teams that      were late to that data revolution now had a chance to get ahead in      this one. This data revolution required a new type of radar gun,      one that could measure in milliseconds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e At 8:25, there was another knock at the door of Room 307. A third      baby-faced teenager appeared: Manny, a shortstop, wearing a gray      T-shirt and sandals, his eyes puffy and reddened. The boys, they      were really just boys, had played in a doubleheader the day      before, in the searing Sonoran heat, as the playoffs neared. This      being a rookie league team, below Single-A, even below      Low-Single-A, every player had recently been drafted or acquired      from overseas. It was their first taste of professional American      baseball. They remained years away from a whiff of a chance at the      Majors; most will never even get that. But as the newest and      youngest parcels of a Major League Baseball empire, they are      handled delicately. They reside in the hotel, a short drive from a      hulking, concrete-and-glass Spring Training complex, where they      relax and train in uniforms that bear the familiar colorway of      their big-league parent club. They are currently chaperoned by      Frank, the organization's director of sports science, who popped      in and out of Room 307 with a list of the telephone numbers to      each of the players' rooms, in case any of them tried to sleep in.      A stocky man with soft blond hair, reddish cheeks and bright eyes,      he is friendly, but with a no-bullshit mien, like a waiter at the      end of his shift. Frank did not seem to care that 8:00 a.m. for an      18-year-old on the Saturday morning after a late doubleheader is a      considerable, if not downright malicious, request. But there was a      lot to get done. Jason Sherwin and Jordan Muraskin were only in      town for two days. Their sort of expertise is not easily      replaceable. The club paid $2,000 to fly them out there. As the      ballplayers tapped on their keyboards, and Manny waited on the      couch, Jason and Jordan shushed about, adjusting the hairnets.      They chatted idly with Frank about the upcoming fantasy football      season, but there were giveaways that they were not members of a      typical athletic entourage. Noticing the colorful symbol on the      front of Manny's T-shirt, Jordan asked him, \"Is that a Google      shirt?\" \"No,\" he replied sheepishly. \"World Baseball Classic.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A spot opened up at one of the desks after the first player      finished. Manny took a seat and waited as Jason prepared the      laptop and Jordan readied the headgear. He used an alcohol swab to      dab behind the player's ears and fitted the strange translucent      swim cap-an EEG headset-over Manny's short hair. Then he grabbed a      syringe and squirted a pale creamy substance into the seams around      the nine spots where the sensors were expected to maintain the      closest contact with the skull. The cream, the consistency of      toothpaste, is a conductive salve for the electrodes. \"You      remember this?\" he asked. Manny nodded. He quickly typed his      username and password into the system and the screen went dark,      with only a small rectangular box appearing in the center. A      moment later Jason signaled the program was ready.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"It'll take about 40 minutes,\" Jordan said. \"Do you want any      practice?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"No,\" Manny said. \"I'm good.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The simulation began. \"And we're off,\" Frank said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e First came the orthopedists. They came to baseball in the late      1950s and early 1960s, transforming how pitchers were assessed and      treated. The psychologists followed. Then the optometrists,      strength coaches, massage therapists and nutritionists. The      economists and sabermetricians. The Zen masters and sleep doctors      and yoga instructors. And finally, at last, there came the      neuroscientists, fresh from school, brandishing doctorates and      peer-reviewed papers and exactly nothing of any value that      mattered to a baseball executive other than their answer to the      question, ÒCan you make my team better?Ó To which, Jason and      Jordan, cofounders of a startup called deCervo, would answer      unequivocally, ÒMaybe.Ó They were not sure. They were scientists,      and they had no background in business. They seemed to have no      business in baseball. That a sport moored to tradition-where      managers still wear uniforms in the dugout and make calls to the      bullpen using a landline phone; the last major league to adopt      on-field instant replay-had any interest in doing business with      them was also unclear. But they wanted to help. There is a saying      about baseball that, even after 170 years, you can still see      something new in any game. Outside of cheating, though, there was      not much new for improving the act of hitting. Hitters can so      often seem besieged by so many factors-mounting velocities,      defensive shifts, the unyielding constraints of our visuomotor      system-that reaching base safely even on occasion is widely      considered a paragon of skill. Ted Williams once called hitting a      baseball Òthe most difficult thing to do in sport.Ó Some say that      the hands need to be ÒcoordinatedÓ well with the eyes, which can      be deceiving if you are one to believe that hitting, like a lot of      athletic endeavors, is mainly a rote exercise based on muscle      memory, a term coaches use often. Coaches also say things like      Òwatch the ball hit the batÓ and Òslow the game down.Ó In 1921,      psychologists at Columbia University designed a battery of      sensory-motor tests for Babe Ruth, under the guise of empiricism,      to explain his prodigious hitting ability. After the tests, the      researchers declared (misleadingly) that RuthÕs vision, reaction      time and coordination were far and away better than othersÕ. It is      unknown if any other ballplayers were assessed. The study was      headline news at the time. A hypothesis for what it takes to be a      great hitter emerged: Be Babe Ruth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But almost a full century later, two other researchers from      Columbia University began to try a different approach, this time      with techniques adopted from a place called the Laboratory for      Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing. Their assessments probed      deeper than the cursory physical examinations performed on Ruth.      They went hunting for data. Brain data. With the EEG and a      carefully tailored video simulation, Jason and Jordan believed      they had landed upon a novel collection method for the type of      information previously left to guesswork. They could transport      their services anywhere, taking their exploratory findings out of      the confines of the laboratory and bringing them into the dugouts      of Major League Baseball. It was relatively quick, entirely      painless, and no more invasive than using an Apple Watch to      measure your heartrate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When the two researchers were first testing the headgear on      players for the baseball team at Bradley University, in the fall      of 2014, they finally got the full scope of the concept they were      developing and what it could mean for baseball. The coaches wanted      to know the results of one player in particular, who seemed to      struggle at the plate despite obvious athleticism and a      picturesque swing. Jordan, then 29, slender, with a boyish face,      trimmed dark hair and strong eyebrows, patiently explained the      metrics he had recorded during the player's neural assessment,      which they categorized with academic patois like Neural Decoding      Performance, Decision Position Metrics, and Neural Discrimination      Strength. On Jordan's laptop, the readout was filled with line      graphs, column graphs, data tables, and heat maps. He explained to      the coaches that the player's \"neuronal curve has shifted      backwards\": He was late recognizing certain pitches and therefore      late in deciding whether to swing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There was silence on the other end of the line. Finally, one of      the coaches said, \"We never understood why he's not the best      player on the team.\" Now they had a clue. \"It was like, 'Yes, yes,      yes!'\" Jordan told me later.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e What Jason and Jordan were showing was a baseball version of what      is known as rapid perceptual decision-making, which is obviously      quite different than the kinds of decisions we mull over (What      should I have for lunch today?) or expressly calculate (Which exit      off the highway should I take?). But the ability to hit is often      mistaken for reaction time, which is virtually the same for      everybody. We make fast decisions all the time on a day-to-day      basis. They can be reduced, like most things related to the brain,      to the patterns of spatially and temporally distinct and      interdependent neuron activations. Baseball players, the really      good ones, produce or respond to these activations in ways      different from other people. The result is they can recognize      certain pitches the same way automobile enthusiasts can recognize      the make and model of a car as it disappears out of sight, or the      way bird-watchers can detect an instantaneous flash of color or      flight pattern. It is similar to the way a chess master can      quickly visualize and interpret movements on the board. We have      always known this, more or less tacitly, from quotidian statistics      such as batting average or on-base percentage, which have been      used to assign value to players for decades. But these, deCervo      likes to point out, are ad hoc variables. They come only after the      player has finished his at-bat. They don't consider how much luck      is involved in inflating or deflating those statistics, such as      whether the ball skipped off a fielder's glove or the wind shifted      direction to rescue a fading bloop. There are advanced analytics      that help factor in some of that, but they are intensive and      complicated. They are not always computed in the Minor Leagues and      rarely get weighed by scouts scouring high schools or overseas for      future big-league talent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But from their earliest trials with the varsity teams from      Bradley, Brown and Columbia, deCervo could produce graphs that      pinpointed when the batter decided to swing versus when he decided      to take, along the time line of the pitch, down to the      millisecond. A hitter stands at the ready, sees a      90-miles-per-hour slider come toward him, and makes no movement of      the bat. DeCervo could still delineate the moment he made that      choice to look at the pitch, rather than go for it. It registered      as activity on the EEG. It registered as tiny explosions of neural      action. After more testing, they had graphs that showed the      spectrum of response times based on different pitches; graphs that      assessed the batter's concentration level (based on eye movements      and the corresponding flutter of brain activity) before the pitch      is thrown; graphs that correlated to the part of the brain that is      firing when decisions are made. After a year, they looked at the      traditional batting statistics the players had produced and      compared them to their neural metrics. They showed them to the      coaches. \"It was dead-on,\" Bradley's coach, Elvis Dominguez, told      me. He wound up organizing his bench around whose readouts showed      a better capacity for laying off pitches, which, he believed,      contributed to a higher on-base percentage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Jason and Jordan cast out for bigger fish. They published a few      academic papers and opened a Kickstarter to raise funds. They      leased space at a shared desk in Columbia's subterranean startup      incubator. They attended the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference,      hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and handed      out business cards. They got a few short write-ups in newspapers      and baseball blogs, and their Twitter account grew to 137      followers (it is now 263). They outsourced a couple web designers      from Nepal and Brazil to improve their simulation and construct an      app. A few Major League teams slowly began showing interest,      always with an eye over one shoulder. One executive agreed to meet      with Jason only if they could speak at a Chipotle across the      street from the conference they were attending, so nobody would      notice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e DeCervo drew its name from French, de cerveau, meaning \"of the      brain.\" \"There are a lot of companies that say they're doing      neural,\" Jordan says. \"They're not doing neural.\" He was referring      to the cognitive gaming companies, most of them modeled after      Lumosity, which claimed (in some cases, deceptively) to improve      mental performance through an app. But Jason and Jordan did not      want to claim any performance benefits from utilizing their      system, or direct teams how and why they should use it. \"We wanted      to be the first company to measure the impact\" of a decision to      swing, Jason said, \"and relate that mental side into performance      outcomes.\" In essence, they were a data company-they had the means      to quantify something seemingly thought to be incalculable: how      and when hitters decide to swing. They thought that information      could be of value to the teams who knew what to do with it. Jordan      said, \"I found a quote from Paul DePodesta,\" the former front      office assistant with the \"Moneyball\" Oakland A's and the New York      Mets, \"that said 'the problem isn't with scouts or scouting. The      problem is that it is based on a metric that is subjective, and      not data-based.' What we're trying to do is go right into there      and say, 'We're scouting purely on the stats.'\"","brand":"Dutton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304200949989,"sku":"NP9781101986356","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781101986356.jpg?v=1767740935","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-performance-cortex-isbn-9781101986356","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}