Let your body do the thinking (Image: Stephen Simpson/Image Bank)

Editorial: It’s not mind or body – it’s both

“I THINK therefore I am,” said Descartes. Perhaps he should have added: “I act, therefore I think.”

Our ability to think has long been considered central to what makes us human. Now research suggests that our bodies and their relationship with the environment govern even our most abstract thoughts. This includes thinking up random numbers or deciding whether to recount positive or negative experiences.

“Advocates of traditional accounts of cognition would be surprised,” says Tobias Loetscher at the University of Melbourne in Parkville, Australia. “They generally consider human …