Summary of Friederike Fabritius & Hans W. Hagemann's The Leading Brain

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 In 1963, astronaut Gordo Cooper was scheduled to be the sixth American to venture into outer space. He was strapped into a chair and prepared to be launched into space. However, he was taking a nap.
#2 Pasteur, the man who discovered bacteria, was a great example of how tenacity and patience are the keys to success. He never left anything to chance, and he was well aware of the secret of his success: his tenacity.
#3 Peak performance is the level of excellence that we commonly refer to as being on top of our game. It is the result of a masterful combination of temperament and mindset.
#4 The sweet spot is the place where the ball responds in the best possible way. We all strive to find our sweet spot of performance, where we’re at our most productive and effective. But what is it.

Sujets

• Cognitive Neuropsychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 23 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822516571
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Friederike Fabritius & Hans W. Hagemann's The Leading Brain
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In 1963, astronaut Gordo Cooper was scheduled to be the sixth American to venture into outer space. He was strapped into a chair and prepared to be launched into space. However, he was taking a nap.

#2

Pasteur, the man who discovered bacteria, was a great example of how tenacity and patience are the keys to success. He never left anything to chance, and he was well aware of the secret of his success: his tenacity.

#3

Peak performance is the level of excellence that we commonly refer to as being on top of our game. It is the result of a masterful combination of temperament and mindset.

#4

The sweet spot is the place where the ball responds in the best possible way. We all strive to find our sweet spot of performance, where we’re at our most productive and effective. But what is it.

#5

The Inverted U is a graph that illustrates the relationship between arousal and performance. Peak performance comes at the top of the graph, where the level of arousal is sufficient to provide optimal focus and attention. Without adequate arousal, we’re likely to feel bored or apathetic.

#6

There are about 1 trillion nerve cells in your brain, each of which measures about one-hundredth of a millimeter. They are tightly packed inside your brain, but their tentacles don’t physically connect. They maintain microscopic gaps called synapses and employ chemical messengers called neurotransmitters to cross the remaining distance.

#7

The nerves that send signals from one neuron to another are called axons, and each neuron comes with only one. However, it has plenty of dendrites, which are neuronal receivers. The dendrites don’t physically connect, which allows them to create new circuitry.

#8

Dopamine, as one journalist suggests, has become the Kim Kardashian of neurotransmitters for its involvement in pleasure, addiction, and reward. It is involved in your ability to update information in memory and focus on the task at hand.

#9

Noradrenaline, or norepinephrine, is the rush we get when we bungee jump or when we react in surprise to the sudden lunge of a neighbor’s friendly dog. It is released when we push ourselves to perform a difficult task better, faster, or with fewer resources.

#10

The third neurochemical that makes up Peak Performance is acetylcholine, which is found in abundance in a special group of human beings: babies. Babies release acetylcholine without even trying, and adults are not so lucky. We must manually turn on the acetylcholine mechanism after the critical period of neuroplasticity is over.

#11

The inverted U shape of the performance curve is a clear and concise explanation of how performance works. However, it doesn’t have any units. How do you measure arousal. In inches. In ergs. In Scoville units.

#12

The definition of spicy in a Thai restaurant is like the definition of arousal in a Yerkes-Dodson graph. Some of us are right-side performers, while others are left-side performers or somewhere in between.

#13

There are great individual differences in the degree of emotional arousal leading to peak performance. Some people enjoy a challenge, while others are terrified of it.

#14

Those who fall on the right side of the performance curve are typically viewed as corporate heroes. They are often bored at work, but when there is a crisis, they are the ones who are called. They enjoy a high level of arousal.

#15

The knee-jerk tendency to ridicule or dismiss left-side peak performers began to fade once the group of right-side executives had time to think things through. It became clear that the people on the left are just as important for organizations and society at large as the thrill seekers on the right.

#16

There are many factors that can affect your position on the performance scale, from gender to genetics to age. The Mars/Venus dichotomy may be an oversimplification, but it turns out that men are more likely to be sensation seekers than women.

#17

The environment is the most important factor that determines your position on the performance scale. The more you are able to adjust to the environment, the better you will perform. The more experienced you are, the more tasks you can handle automatically by relying on your unconscious brain.

#18

When it comes to peak performance, self-awareness is essential. pinpointing your position on the curve from time to time and from task to task can be critical to your success.

#19

To better understand your peak performance profile, make a list of your tasks and activities throughout your typical workweek. Then rate each according to how it makes you feel: overaroused, underaroused, or at the top of your game.

#20

The three most important considerations in purchasing a house are location, location, and location. The same applies to finding your performance sweet spot. It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to realize that Louis Pasteur would be a disaster as an astronaut and that Gordo Cooper would be a liability in a laboratory.

#21

The goal of achieving peak performance is to stay at the top of the curve for an extended period of time. You should rise to the occasion when it’s needed most. Trying to maintain the optimum mix of dopamine, noradrenaline, and acetylcholine for a prolonged period would deplete the neurotransmitters, resulting in burnout and exhaustion.

#22

Once you have found the right environment, you can use minor adjustments to fine-tune your position on the performance curve depending on the demands of a particular task or situation. These adjustments are not intended to transform a bad job into a good one.

#23

If you find it difficult to assess your own stress level, you can measure it more scientifically by using the Perceived Stress Scale, a fourteen-item instrument devised by psychologists from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Oregon. If your arousal level is lower than you need it in order to be effective, you can artificially raise it by imagining a mild fear.

#24

To temporarily take your foot off the gas, try engaging in some of your daily activities on automatic pilot. If you’re feeling a loss of control, focus on those aspects of the process you can control.

#25

Louis Pasteur, the man who discovered the role of microbes, developed a number of lifesaving vaccines against deadly diseases. His work paved the way for the modern hospital operating room.

#26

The astronauts were finally given complete control over their spacecrafts, and Gordo Cooper was calm and alert during the crisis. He was completely in his element.

#27

To reliably achieve peak performance, you must overcome two obstacles: your highs and lows that can sometimes wreak havoc on your ability to think clearly, and your strong tendency to be distracted by distractions.

#28

Peak performance is achieved when you have an optimal level of emotional arousal. You need to have fun, challenge yourself, and focus on what’s important to achieve peak performance.

#29

The incident that took place in the 2006 World Cup Final between France and Italy was controversial and devastating. It was Zinedine Zidane, the French star, who put France on the scoreboard with a penalty kick that ricocheted off the crossbar and landed behind the goal line. Twelve minutes later, Italy’s center fullback Marco Materazzi evened the score at 1-1 by deftly heading in a deflection off a corner kick.

#30

Emotional outbursts occur when the more civilized, conscious region of your brain is hijacked by a more powerful, primitive, and largely unconscious part. It’s just one skirmish in a constant battle between your prefrontal cortex and your limbic system.

#31

Our brains are still equipped with the same survival instincts that we had when we were cavemen. When we see something that we perceive as putting our survival in danger, we react, quickly and often unconsciously.

#32

The fight-or-flight response is the instinctive response to a threat, and it is usually undesirable in a civilized social context. However, if we try to tamp down our emotional response, we may do harm to our long-term health.

#33

Our ancestors were constantly on the lookout for threats, such as poisonous plants and animal predators, when they lived in small groups.