We are all products of our environment but to what degree? What happens if a mind is completely separated from any form of input and left to develop for years? Without language how can a mind process information with any level of depth? Without any experiences what would a mind think about? It can still experience emotions right? Would it be overwhelmed with a sense of aloneness and boredom? What happens if these feelings persists for countless years? Would the mind physically change structure? What would happen if all senses were restored on the mind's 20th birthday? After this point if the mind were to develop language would it remember the endless void or would it even have the ability to remember anything at all? How can you remember nothingness?

Pretty complex question. The human brain does most of its development early in life as synapses are connected. You'd probably be irrevocably damaged if your brain isn't trained at a young age. It's one of the reasons why education is critical in society. It's similar to the nature and nurture ideas.

Short and long term memory are separate zones in the brain. I don't believe they'd be affected. Things like language and social skills that form very young are often forever lost. As an example research feral children.

What happens if a mind is completely separated from any form of input and left to develop for years?[/quote]That is easy to answer: Death.

Sensory deprivation, even an imperfect one (earmuffs in a dark room), very quickly leads to delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis. We're talking about a scale of 10-30 minutes, not years. Sensory deprivation on a scale of several hours is used for torture, often leaving permanent emotional and organic damage. There is data from innocent abduction victioms held in US "black camps" strongly suggesting a highly elevated risk of sudden cardiac death weeks or months later. Further, it is well-known from traumatology that neurons degenerate when they are not regularly stimulated.

Insofar, being completely separated from any form of input for years is just incompatible with a functioning brain, or life as such. This is even more true for the cerebral development in childhood. Without stimulus, it does not happen.

The mind has a lot of potential at birth, which is winnowed down by exposure to different things. Language is a good example. There are synapses that develop based on exposure to language which otherwise do not, and if a person is not exposed to things that will develop those neural pathways then he or she will probably not be able to develop linguistic ability. The physical structure of the brain literally changes based on exposure.

An infant placed in sensory deprivation is an unsettling thought. I'm not a neuroscientist, but I would imagine that a lot of the neural pathways that we assume all people would have would not develop (or not develop well), and so the infant would grow with much worse ability in those areas. But with no stimulation, it seems like there wouldn't be other areas developing instead. I would have to imagine that such a person would have a heavy limitation on abstract thought at best, as the brain wouldn't have developed in such a way as to allow it. I have a hard time thinking of other, more precise effects, because I can't think of a good comparison for total lack of stimulation in an infant.

I think pretty much all of the brain is formed based on what input it gets. However it is evolved in a way wich makes certain kind of input always be focused to the same area.
To stop the brain from developing you would need to block all inputs (=Cut some nerves) but even then if the brain gets any input from anywhere, it will develop (assuming its not just completely random noise).

If there was no kind of input, and the neurons did not get damaged permanently, i think that if the person was let out of the dark, he would live a normal life, because he couldnt remember anything from the time when he had no input since memories are formed of sensations. Not sure if emotions would be remembered or not, those are kind of input too so they need to be eliminated.

Well, again assuming that his brain is still in the state wich it needs to be to learn like he was a fetus xD



Though the brain propably forms connections as it grows, so if the brain is let to grow to full size and then input is applied, it might not develop a very good structure. (Its possible that it does though)



If the brain of a person who has liven his life for a while already is cut off the world, it would propably go into a dream like state in no time. His memories would soon be corrupt by the randomness of his dreams as he forgets what something really felt like or how something was really done. Then it would slowly stop functioning as nothing is rewarding the brain for action anymore. (Not sure if thats required?)

I think pretty much all of the brain is formed based on what input it gets. However it is evolved in a way wich makes certain kind of input always be focused to the same area.
To stop the brain from developing you would need to block all inputs (=Cut some nerves) but even then if the brain gets any input from anywhere, it will develop (assuming its not just completely random noise).

If there was no kind of input, and the neurons did not get damaged permanently, i think that if the person was let out of the dark, he would live a normal life, because he couldnt remember anything from the time when he had no input since memories are formed of sensations. Not sure if emotions would be remembered or not, those are kind of input too so they need to be eliminated.

Well, again assuming that his brain is still in the state wich it needs to be to learn like he was a fetus xD



Though the brain propably forms connections as it grows, so if the brain is let to grow to full size and then input is applied, it might not develop a very good structure. (Its possible that it does though)



If the brain of a person who has liven his life for a while already is cut off the world, it would propably go into a dream like state in no time. His memories would soon be corrupt by the randomness of his dreams as he forgets what something really felt like or how something was really done. Then it would slowly stop functioning as nothing is rewarding the brain for action anymore. (Not sure if thats required?)

I personally think the connections in grey matter are formed by what we experience and all parts that make up the limbic system are predetermined by our genetic makeup.

Pretty complex question. The human brain does most of its development early in life as synapses are connected. You'd probably be irrevocably damaged if your brain isn't trained at a young age. It's one of the reasons why education is critical in society. It's similar to the nature and nurture ideas.

Short and long term memory are separate zones in the brain. I don't believe they'd be affected. Things like language and social skills that form very young are often forever lost. As an example research feral children.

From what I have read in the past of feral children, the results were pretty inconclusive. In many cases, the environment in which the child became feral makes traditional teaching almost impossible. The one case that I had read showed remarkably progress towards language skills development started at age 13, but followed by massive regression when the child was again abused. The story was absolutely gut-renching though, for a child to have such a terrible upbringing, to be removed from that setting and taught to speak and smile, then put into an abusive foster home once researchers lost interest. People suck.

We are all products of our environment but to what degree?

I think the "products of our environment" concept is just a desire to escape responsibility for the parts of ourselves that we don't like, instead of actively trying to change the parts we hate. Self-defeatism, imo.

[color="#1C2837"]Without language how can a mind process information with any level of depth?[/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]If by 'language' you are only referring to spoken language, not everyone currently even think in words. Some think in pictures as their 'assembly language' as it were.

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It can still experience emotions right?[/quote]
[color="#1c2837"]That really depends what you call 'the mind' and what parts of the human are you separating out, and what parts are you leaving in.
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Would it be overwhelmed with a sense of aloneness and boredom?[/quote]
[color="#1c2837"]Maybe. If the mind has a need for fellowship, and that need isn't met, sure it would feel the effect of that... but it might have difficulty understanding what that feeling is, since it never experienced the thing which it is longing for. It would be a source of confusion for it, knowing it longs for something, but not knowing what. So it'll probably try to suppress that feeling, and seek of ways to distract itself from feeling it, since it'd be unpleasant to it - but with no way to satisfy that absence.
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What happens if these feelings persists for countless years? Would the mind physically change structure?[/quote]
[color="#1c2837"]Wait, so the mind has a body again? Or, what do you mean by 'physically change' if you are taking out everything physical?

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What would happen if all senses were restored on the mind's 20th birthday?[/quote]
[color="#1c2837"]What happens when a blind man suddenly sees again after being born blind and living that way his whole life? Sensory overload, at first, having difficulty parsing the incoming data, but gradually adapting to it, then becoming used to it, and then barely even remembering a time that you lived without it, though remembering that such a time did exist.
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After this point if the mind were to develop language ... would it even have the ability to remember anything at all?[/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]Sure, it would remember everything it processed beforehand. However, if it's a painful memory, it might give itself selective amnesia as a form of self-defense. If the past was so painful to it, it might even, in self-defense, split into two or more personalities to help compartmentalize the pain.
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...[color="#1C2837"]would it remember the endless void...? [color="#1C2837"]How can you remember nothingness?[/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]You don't remember nothingness, because there was more then nothingness in your environment. There was still self, so you just remember everything that you thought about within the environment that existed before the environment was enlarged beyond the walls of yourself.

[color="#1c2837"]Wait, so the mind has a body again? Or, what do you mean by 'physically change' if you are taking out everything physical?
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Thinking more of a paralyzed, deaf, blind, and entirely senseless person. Under an MRI would the brain change structure from a normal person's brain?

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[color="#1c2837"]Wait, so the mind has a body again? Or, what do you mean by 'physically change' if you are taking out everything physical?
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Thinking more of a paralyzed, deaf, blind, and entirely senseless person. Under an MRI would the brain change structure from a normal person's brain?
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Well, the MRI scans show changes even when in certain types of comas, I think google says.