Physical intelligence is the most primitive and essential form of cognition. We rely on it to perform basic actions (changing a light bulb) to complicated activities (navigating unknown terrain). Renowned neuroscientist, author, and mountaineer, Scott Grafton brilliantly describes the action-oriented brain's design and workings through the lens of behavioral neurology and cognitive neuroscience, demonstrating how physical intelligence is inherent in all of us.

His book of the same name explains the science behind our most overlooked ability and explains the powerful connections between mind and body that help us optimize our physical potentials. 

This conversation offers us a clear and illuminating insight into the relationship between the mind and the body as they engage (or don't engage) in all manner of physical activity.

Episode Quotes:

What experience sparked your interest in studying surfaces and movements?

One of the most profound experiences I had as a kid was one of my mentors who was teaching me how to do all this, he was teaching a high school class, and he made everybody hike alone for half an hour. For most people, that's the first time they'd actually ever been alone outside of, let's say, their bedroom or something like that. So they’re in the middle of nowhere, middle of the wild now going alone. Right? 

And it's just pure existential reality. This is how people lived, for most of evolution, just being that skilled, just moving through terrain by yourself and gaining confidence in that is really profound. And not enough of us experience that. I mean, everybody should spend just 10 minutes walking off-trail, just go to Point Reyes or wherever, whatever national park you like, just go off-trail for a bit. It's a totally different experience. 

Threat in the wilderness helps develop focus and attention.

Just think of anybody who has to be situationally aware in a really dynamic environment of everything around them and how they train themselves to open up to that experience and certainly being in the wild by yourself kind of triggers you into that mode because it's just like, what's going on around me. Right? You just naturally kind of become vigilant to just a huge space around you. And I don't think there's any special trick to doing it, other than just doing a lot of it and being in situations where it's a natural outcome of what you're trying to do.

Which sense aids in identifying the position of one's body parts in space?

The sixth sense is really a tool to help you figure out your body's schema. Your body's schema is your sense of where your three-dimensional body is in space, right? It's not being able to name your finger, or telling an elbow from a wrist. It's, where am I in space? And I'm moving, so I got to keep up with that. And the sixth sense is more information coming in to help you track that and is primarily muscle. When your muscles contract, that's a big tell that my body schema is now moving, where I am in three-dimensional space, where I am is updating. 

Show Links:

Guest Profile

• Scott Grafton Bio at UC Santa Barbara
• Scott Grafton on Google Scholar

His Work

• Physical Intelligence: The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Through Life

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