Physical Intelligence

October 15, 2019
A state-of-the-science survey of how our brains enable our bodies to do their work. When we walk toward a wall, why don't we smack into it? Because the body has an "intelligence" that enables us to do things like translate signals about distance, materiality, proprioception, and related matters that, writes Grafton (Chair, Neuroscience/Univ. of California, Santa Barbara), "are almost primordial in their simplicity" but that encompass the whole history of evolution, "stretching all the way back to the appearance of the most basic forms of locomotion in vertebrates." The concept of "physical intelligence" is something that has tended to be studied only in its superlative sense, in the performance of top athletes or persons placed under the most extreme of environmental conditions. In everyday cases, the mental processes used for our actions "are, more than anything, different kinds of learning machines that the brain has available for acquiring and maintaining physically derived knowledge." A climber and distance hiker, Grafton takes many of his examples from his own experiences outdoors under conditions that sometimes invite taking things for granted but that instead require constant vigilance, the mind connecting sensory information to appropriate responses--appropriate because, so often, doing the wrong thing can lead to disaster. All of this requires sophisticated neural circuitry that in turn yields a kind of "sixth sense" whose discovery has fueled debate among philosophers and brain scientists for decades: "How could a person consciously and willfully move while being utterly unaware of her own body's movements?" Arriving at an answer deepens our understanding of this sixth sense of movement, which turns out to be more important than the other senses in getting us around in the world. It involves such complex mental processes as being able to "conceptualize dynamic force" and areas of the brain that range from the higher-reasoning cortex to the elemental cerebellum, which "keeps track of a massive list of comparatively minor adjustments or tweaks to each movement to make them work well under a variety of conditions." A well-written exploration of the mind-body connection.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 28, 2019
Grafton, director of UC Santa Barbara’s Brain Imaging Center, explains the “components of the mind that allow anyone to engage with and change the world” in this thoughtful debut. He uses both personal experience—solo hiking and camping adventures in California’s High Sierra region—and medical and scientific case studies to illustrate his points. To explain “body schema,” the map of the body that the brain maintains to control posture and movement, Grafton uses examples of how it can malfunction, such as in people with epilepsy, one of whom reported, just before an attack, feeling “herself become smaller and smaller.” To probe the subject of “self-guidance navigation,” he describes relying on limited external cues to get himself out of a potentially treacherous hiking environment. The book’s concepts aren’t always intuitive, but Grafton does his best to employ understandable examples, such as cooking breakfast as an instance of “hierarchical reinforcement learning,” or fixing his camp stove as an illustration of motor control. This is a well-written introduction to what’s going on when one performs everyday but deeply complex actions, such as walking, which “demonstrates a beautiful calculus that the brain endlessly performs to inform movement.”

December 1, 2019

The movement of the body through space and its ability to adapt to changing circumstances requires intelligence. An infant who learns to feed themselves after trial and error or the ability to estimate how high to climb on a ladder in order to change a light bulb are but two examples of skills informed by physical intelligence. Neuroscientist Grafton's (Chair, Neuroscience, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara). exploration of physical intelligence and its relation to brain function is structured around a solo hike he took in the Sierra Nevada. He explains what his brain does (e.g., sensing, adapting, and anticipating), as he navigates rough terrain, makes decisions about his route, repairs his camp stove, and deals with emotional and physical fatigue. Grafton writes with clarity and warmth, elucidating key points with descriptions of experiments and the work of many other scientists in a variety of fields. VERDICT Grafton's compelling exploration of the relationship between the body and the mind is recommended for anyone interested in the workings of the brain.--Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.