Scott Grafton: The Science of Physical Intelligence
• The mind influences the body, and the body influences the mind. Dr. Scott Grafton describes how marvelously the mind and the body seamlessly work together to help us navigate our daily lives. The ability to think and interact makes us human. An article by Mr. Alex Mau.
December 7, 2020 • Last updated: December 7, 2020
in Mind and Body • 20 Minutes Read
"Both sports-like activities or sort of extravagant physical behavior but also just creative things. Building a house, pouring a slab of cement, whatever it is, that is the stuff of physical intelligence." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
In this episode of the "Art of Manliness" podcast, host Mr. Brett McKey interviews Dr. Scott Grafton. He is a neuroscientist and a professor specializing in neurology and nuclear medicine and the director of the UCSB Brain Imaging Center.
Dr. Scott Grafton's latest book, "Physical Intelligence: The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Through Life." Dr. Scott Grafton describes how marvelously the mind and the body seamlessly work together to help us navigate our daily lives and explains the cause of fatigue and the reason older adults fall.
Interview with Dr. Scott Grafton in Three Sentences
"Physical intelligence is not the same as a simple exercise. It is projecting yourself into really novel and interesting, and challenging situations. It is the difference between getting your exercise on a treadmill and getting your exercise on a trail in a park near your house. There is just no comparison." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
We take for granted how important the mind and the body interact seamlessly in our daily lives.
Most satisfying human experience is often involved with the body and the mind, like run a marathon, build a house, or trek across the desert.
Physical intelligence operates in the body, and most people often don't even think about it and understand how the body and the mind work collectively and cohesively.
Ideas to Takeaway from This Interview
"We did not evolve to sit around and talk or read books. That is the icing on the cake. We evolved from rough and tumbled environments where we had to find food build shelter, and find our way through vast rough environments. We did that up until very recently, only about a thousand years ago." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
What is physical intelligence?
"What makes a person great in some sense is what they do, the actions they enable, and the things they do in their world. Physical intelligence is just the underbelly of that. It is the underpinnings you need actually to get things done." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
The mind and the body operate seamlessly together to assist us in interacting and navigating our surroundings. Physical intelligence works automatically under-the-hood without our notice, and yet it is essential and often takes for granted.
We often do not think about it, yet it is the underpinnings we need to get things done without injures. Physical intelligence makes us human, interacting with the surroundings, and acting in the world. The human abilities with the mind and the body enable us to build bridges, craft masterpieces, erect monuments and navigate the world through treacherous lands and turbulent seas.
We have the greatest pleasure and enjoyment when we work with our hands and walk on our feet. Humans did not evolve to sit around the house and look at our phones. We developed from living in rough and violent environments where we built shelters, created tools, and traveled through the harsh environment for survival. Physical intelligence is the physical presence, touch, smell, and feel in our surroundings that make us human.
How the mind and the body make space around us?
"Think about walking to the other side of the house. Think about walking across the street. In those moments, you have expanded your operational space. You can mentally stretch out and construct any of those volumes of space and then plan and organize your action inside that volume. We do this all the time, mentally, when we are moving and acting in our environments." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
The mind and the body are working together without we noticed. The mind constructs space around us about what is going on and gives us an idea of the environment.
When we walk across the room, the mind makes a sensory evaluation by creating a three-dimensional space about the room's size, calculating the distance, and assessing the obstacles. The body receives the sensory information and follows the instructions, and takes appropriate action if obstacles are in the way.
We have mentally stretch and expanded our operational space in those split seconds and planned and organized a series of steps inside that space. If we do not make space around us, we do not interact in it. Outdoor activities like obstacle course games are excellent to exercise the mind and body together. Mindful activities like meditations and sleep are perfect daily practices to clear the mind from distraction and strengthen attention.
"Our mind unconsciously and seamlessly just recognizes, this is an obstruction, this is something I cannot get through, and it is looking for opportunities in the environment that it can accomplish or can get through." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
Affordance is what the environment offers us. It is the properties or the surface of objects which show us the actions we can take. For example, there is a giant concrete tube on the ground. We can roll the tube when it lies on the side or sit inside the tube, or stand on the tube's top.
Affordance is the mind and the body's relationship with the environment. A button can be designed to look as if it needs to be turned, pushed, or pulled. We should be able to perceive affordances without having to consider how to use the items. Affordance provides the visual and mental imageries of the environment that creates possible and impossible for us.
The mind unconsciously recognizes the environment and works seamlessly with the body to navigate the scene safely. If there are obstructions in our way and we know we cannot get through them. The mind will look for other possibilities to steer through obstacles and arrive at the destination. The mind and the body are continually interacting with the environment around us. The mind does the visual and mental evaluation and calculation while the body navigates the world, so we do not accidentally walk into walls and traffic.
"The reality is everything we learn motorically, and we are also kind of unlearning, but not completely." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
The common misconception is those older adults with poor health or eyesight fall, but the fact is that everyone falls, either healthy or young. Affordance deterioration explains why most older adults fall as they age. Our ability to effectively move and walk as we age will deteriorate over some time if we do not exercise our motor skills regularly. If we have not been walking for an extended period, the affordance becomes rusty and weak, and we cannot evaluate the possibility for us. The result is that we are more likely to fall and become more vulnerable to cracks and holes in the sidewalk.
Another common misconception is those older adults should live in a safe and protective environment to avoid injuries. However, the opposite provides a more effective outcome. Walking, balancing, and crawling is motor skills that involve the muscles' body movements and actions. Affordance is a skill. It takes practice to grow better and will deteriorate if not utilize frequently.
Affordance is a radical view about what to do with aging. Older adults should continue to challenge themselves regularly in physical activities. Full-body activities on gravel roads, uneven pavements, and rough surfaces will develop the strength to hold, the vision to see, and the mind to navigate the outdoor environment. The more variety and complex the settings are, the better for older adults to adapt and are less likely to fall in unpredictable environments.
We should continuously challenge ourselves in physical activities as we age. We should give our strength and vision the outdoor activities like a walk on gravel roads, crawl up a hill, see far distance. Outdoor activities are much better for our bodies than exercises in the city on perfectly smooth sidewalks.
Affordance is a skill. Skills that take time to learn, like the footwork, the motion, and the movements, take time to re-learn. The primary motor skills are intact with age, but the advanced motor skills, like balancing, running, and leaping, will deteriorate if we stop exercising them.
"It is your map of where you are right now. It is a hard problem because you are this mushy three-dimensional object that's constantly changing its posture. The sensors for tracking this are very noisy, and they fooled easily, so it is a hard problem for the brain to keep track of simply the posture." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
Body scheme is the understanding and awareness of the bodies' boundaries learned through movement and experience within three-dimension space. It is a collection of processes that registers body parts' posture; the space around the body and individual body parts that can reach with the hands, the brain must compute the arms' position within the space.
When we do physical work, the body performs the posture while the mind tracks the movements. It is a challenging problem for the brain because the body position's coordinates are continually shifting within the three-dimensional space. The sensors to monitor our movement within the complex and noisy environment create calculation challenges for the brain to track the posture and measure distance in the three-dimensional space.
Body schema is not just an awareness of body posture and pose, but also understand the movement and the motion. It takes dedicated control and focuses on controlling the body. Gymnasts and dancers have an outstanding ability to track their body pose. They learned and practiced postures and movements. They have a great sense of where their bodies are at any moment within the three-dimensional space.
"Fatigue is a battle of multiple minds we have, one of which is persevering and pushing us as hard as we can and another one is creating this emotional sense to hold some in reserve." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
Fatigue is an emotion that the brain generates, independent of whatever the muscles are doing when we create this emotion to reserve energy.
The idea would be when humans were hunters and gatherers. They traveled long-distance for food and shelter. The mind and body would nurture us by reserving body energy for unknown elements like how many more days to travel or how much farther to travel to find food or shelter. This reserving body energy emotion is called fatigue. The mind puts aside body energy in reserve if we are at a point of actual exhaustion and injure the body./p>
Athletes push themselves over long periods to past the point, far past the point where their bodies sense fatigue. We often see athletes collapse at the finish line. These athletes feel the fatigue, but they learn to suppress it and move forward until the end.
"We should double down and make exercises even more interesting, even more physically interesting and demanding. I think a person gets far more well-being from doing that, they age more gracefully, and they experience much more of the world in a better way." - Dr. Scotto Grafton.
Physical intelligence is not physical exercises that we participle indoor. It is the collaboration with the mind and the body to operate together to achieve the ability to project ourselves in actual and challenging situations in daily life. We can interact and think in the world.
The mental benefits for the mind and the physical benefits for the body come from actual physical, complex, and varied environments that are incomparable to simple exercises.
Rock climbing is an excellent exercise of physical intelligence in rough and tumbles environments. It utilizes the mind and the body simultaneously, and there is no distraction and interruption with the electrical devices. It is a physical exercise that requires focus and concentration at the moment.
We should double down on physical activities as we age and make daily exercise challenging. An active and physical lifestyle goes far more than well-being. It goes from living a reactive life in a safe and protective indoor environment to living an energetic experience in an outdoor physical environment.
Interview Summary with Dr. Scott Grafton
"Just like a search and rescue team, it does not just willy-nilly wander into the wilderness looking for someone. They create a map, and they lay out a grid, and they say, 'This is what we are going to do here. We are going to first set constraints on the space we wanna work in.' We do this all the time, mentally when we are moving and acting in our environments." - Dr. Scott Grafton.
"Intelligence and skills can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body and the mind are healthy and strong." - President Mr. John F. Kennedy.
"Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it." - Pluto.
The mind influences the body and how the body influences the mind, and it is this cycle; they cannot disconnect from each other.
A man of action or the concept of what makes a person great is what they do, the actions they enable, and the things they do in the world.
Man travels the wilderness without the convenience of technology is an excellent environment to explain the meaning of physical intelligence, and it is the purest and finest human experience.
The ability to think and interact in the world makes us human.
The convenience of technology lessens the human ability to experience an adventurous and meaningful life.
Meditation and doing things in wild environments train us to be more disciplined in allocating our attention and focus.
Falling is the number one reason people go to emergency rooms, and it is older adults, young people, and everybody. Often, the reason is that they do not engage in complex outdoor activities regularly.
The most difficult sensory experience is connecting the conscious verbal mind and the body posture with the eyes closed. The mind cannot tell the body how to operate without evaluating, calculating, and analyzing the environment.
[You can listen to this full interview at the "Art of Manliness"Link]
Further Read and Resources on Physical Intelligence
"Physical Intelligence: The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Through Life" by Dr. Scott Grafton's book is available on Amazon.
You can learn more about his book and his work at ScotthYoung.com.
Kalymnos Climbing Festival. A unique gathering of climbers, taking place on the beautiful island of Kalymnos, one of the world's “hottest” climbing holiday destinations.
You can read the review of Antonio R. Damasio, "Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain," 1994 here.
The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee. The full course is 100 miles (160 km) and is limited to a 60-hour period.
You can watch the movie trailer of "The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats its Young." It is available on Amazon Prime.
If you enjoy this interview, please visit the website Art of Manliness for more in-depth interviews with authors and thinkers. The Art of Manliness podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Android, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, Tunein, and most major podcast platforms.
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