Intelligence in any individual is not static but is constantly changing, being subject to a continual interplay between external forces and internal processes. One's functioning level of intelligence varies substantially over time and can be influenced by a wide variety of environmental factors. Even though genetic inheritance places upper and lower limits on each of our intelligence ranges, the environment determines just where each of us falls within that range. A newborn infant has the rudimentary capacity for perceiving and acting, and appears to be able to experience pain and pleasure, but it is incapable of displaying those characteristics that we ordinary attribute to mind. It has no conscious memory, imagination or the ability to solve problems or display true thinking.¹⁹...If raised in an impoverished environment, such as children abandoned in the wild, it will fail to develop any of the higher mental functions.²⁰...A 13-year-old girl named Genie was discovered after having been locked away all her life by her parents. She was mute, incontinent, crawled on all fours, understood nothing that was said to her, and demonstrated no evidence of mind. After four years of foster care she developed to the level of an eight-year-old, manifesting some language ability and many social skills.²¹

Mind therefore is a product of the culture and society within which we are raised.²²...Language also appears to play a role in the development of consciousness and mind. It is conceivable that teaching language to chimpanzees not only increases their ability to communicate with humans, but actually may raise their level of consciousness.²³

Experiments with rats comparing groups raised in an enriched environment versus groups raised in an impoverished environment demonstrated an increase in size of the brain cortex for those raised in an enriched environment. The enriched environment was comprised of communal cages with running wheels and various toys, in addition to which the rats were frequently handled and petted by caretakers.²⁴

William Greenough, at the University of Illinois, performed a similar experiment and demonstrated that rats raised in an enriched environment had more dendritic branches and therefore presumably more synapses between neurons. Additionally, he found evidence that new synapses form in 10 to 15 seconds or less.²⁵

There is also experimental evidence in monkeys that specialty training physically alters cerebral cortical geography. As we develop new skills we continuously remodel our brains by what we put into them.²⁶

Steven Rose, a British neuroscientist, also believes that our brains are changed by the way we use them. He believes that our brain size may not be so different from that of early man but that our brain state, including the connectivity of cells, is different. Our changing environment and forms of society have produced changes in intelligence and consciousness.²⁷

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