Intelligence and embodiment: A statistical mechanics approach

Evolutionary neuroscience has been mainly dominated by the principle of phylogenetic conservation, specifically, by the search for similarities in brain organization. This principle states that closely related species tend to be similar because they have a common ancestor. However, explaining, for instance, behavioral differences between humans and chimpanzees, has been revealed to be notoriously difficult. In this paper, the hypothesis of a common information-processing principle exploited by the brains evolved through natural evolution is explored. A model combining recent advances in cognitive psychology and evolutionary neuroscience is presented. The macroscopic effects associated with the intelligence-like structures postulated by the model are analyzed from a statistical mechanics point of view. As a result of this analysis, some plausible explanations are put forward concerning the disparities and similarities in cognitive capacities which are observed in nature across species. Furthermore, an interpretation on the efficiency of brain’s computations is also provided. These theoretical results and their implications against modern theories of intelligence are shown to be consistent with the formulated hypothesis.