Ever wonder why you don’t walk into walls or off cliffs? How you decide if you can drive through a snowstorm? How high you are willing to climb up a ladder to change a lightbulb? Through the prisms of behavioral neurology and cognitive neuroscience, Scott Grafton accounts for the design and workings of the action-oriented brain in synchronicity with the body in the natural world, and he shows how physical intelligence is inherent in all of us.
Mr. Grafton is an excellent guide to the contemporary science of bodily skills ... Mr. Grafton wears his extensive experimental knowledge lightly ... True, the evolution of language has changed our brains radically, and that in turn has enabled us, for better or worse, to transform our planet. But evolution can only work with what it is given, and so it must have built language on the basis of older bodily capabilities. It would have been interesting to explore the comparison between our verbal agility and our other physical skills ... On its own terms, Physical Intelligence is an emphatic success. Mr. Grafton gives an authoritative and accessible account of what is now known about nonverbal bodily intelligence. And for good measure he throws in an excellent introduction to the challenging pleasures of the High Sierra.
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 ... Grafton’s compelling exploration of the relationship between the body and the mind is recommended for anyone interested in the workings of the brain.
At times a demanding scientific read, Grafton’s study is ultimately a thought-provoking examination of neuroscience delightfully informed by a transcendentalist plea for greater harmony with nature.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
