Promotional Information

An examination of the link between the vigor with which we move and the value that the brain assigns to the goal of the movement

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: The Effort of Movement
Chapter 2: Movements and Decisions in a Normative Framework
Chapter 3: Reaction Time and Deliberation
Chapter 4: Neural Prelude to a Movement
Chapter 5: Cortical Computation of Utility
Chapter 6: Basal Ganglia and the Motivation to Move
Chapter 7: Serotonin and the Promotion of Sloth
Conclusions
Reference list
Index

About the Author

Reza Shadmehr is Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the coauthor of The Computational Neurobiology of Reaching and Pointing and Biological Learning and Control (both published by the MIT Press).

Reviews

"An exciting guide for those who want to understand from a computational and neural perspective how and why the vigor of our actions reveals so much about our inner thoughts."
- Daniel Wolpert, Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University

"Vigor provides fascinating biological foundations of utility and choice by showing how our movements reveal our preferences. Shadmehr and Ahmed offer a cardinal measurement tool for utility that is of fundamental interest to all scholars in decision science."
- Ernst Fehr, Director of the UBS Center for Economics in Society, University of Zurich

"Using multiple features, including attention and motivation, Shadmehr and Ahmed show how mind and action are controlled by various brain areas. This unique approach makes Vigor an important book for both individuals and society."
- Okihide Hikosaka, Distinguished Investigator, NIH