This is a very complex question. No one really knows the complete answer. Part of it is genetic. This means that to some extent your brain is a product of what your mom and dad gave to you when you were conceived . This is the part we call "NATURE"...then there is the part related to the gift God has given you...that is how well you use and try and develop your OWN brain.
As an example: what do you think is better for your brain, going to the library and taking out a book about WHALES and reading it and looking up more information that you think is cool, OR watching TV (cartoons ) everyday for 4 hours ????

So , our brains need to be used because the more we use them the smarter we become. But if you sit around and watch TV then you are not using your brain so much and that will make it lazy. This part of brain development is called NURTURE...that means you take care of your own development (your mom, dad and teachers and other people can help you do this too)

I hope this answers your complex question !!!

Almost everything that makes a person unique is determined by their genes, or their genetic make up.Your genes are encoded by your DNA. You inherit half your genes from your father and half from your mother. Together they combine to make a full person.

Women produce hundreds of eggs over their lifetime. Each egg is unique from the others due to its unique genetic makeup. The mother's egg making machinery makes it so that each egg gets a slightly different set of her own genes. So each egg is like her but all in a slightly different way. The father has millions and millions of sperm. Each sperm, just like the eggs, is genetically distinct from the other. In the same way that the eggs are made, the father's sperm are made to contain a slightly different set of his own genes. So every baby that is produced by one set of parents is totally unique genetically from each other, unless they are identical twins (see above question).

Ifone set of parents can produce many many children all being unique from each other, then other parents will also produce children that are all unique from each other. Together everyone is genetically distinct from one another. This is why our genes or our DNA is the best "fingerprint" we have. Each person's DNA is totally unlike anyone else's DNA.

Forensic scientist are scientist who attempt to solve crimes using various biological and chemical tests. Because a copy of your DNA is in every cell in your body, if any little part of a person (organic matter)is left at a crime scene, the DNA can usually be obtained. Even if you only left one little flake of dead skin, or a single drop of blood, or even a hair, a forensic scientist could get the DNA fingerprint from this and create a DNA fingerprint of the suspect. After a DNA fingerprint is made, other people's DNA can be compared to this original fingerprint, and when there is a match, you know,you've found the culprit.

Another way DNA can be used as a fingerprint is to prove who the parents of a particular child are. Because your DNA will obviously be most like your parents DNA, a comparison can be made between the child's DNA and the possible parents and if they are highly similar, then these are the parents.

Your genes or your DNA provide the blueprint for every protein and cell to be made in your body. How these proteins and cells interact with each other and other substances determine how you look, somewhat how you act, and to some extent, how smart you are.

Your brain is composed of billions of neurons. These are specialized cells that convey information to your brain and out of your brain to the rest of your body. Since each one of these neurons was made via your DNA, each neuron is unique from all the other neurons in your brain as well as from anyone else's neurons. How these neurons develop and connect with each other determine how your brain functions. Certain people have genes that cause their brain cells to connect in such a way that information flows very effeciently, and they can learn quickly.However, no matter how good your genes are, a lot of intelligence has to do with learning. The more you learn, the better your brain becomes at learning and then, the more you are able to learn. So babies and children who have their brains stimulated at young ages usually show enhanced learning abilities all throughout their lives. When your brain is developing (in the first decade or more of your life) neurons form connections with each other so that they can exchange information. The more this pathway of information flow is used the faster the info will flow. You can reinforce your neuron connections by using these pathways over and over again. This is why it is believed that we learn things best when they are presented in a repetitive fashion.

So all in all, we are all differently intelligent and have different "minds" because of our genetic makeup and because of the experiences we have had and how much these experiences enhance our ability to learn and think. What are some other things that might help shape who we are and how we think?

A lot of scientists wonder, too, why people have different brains, minds, and intelligence. We know these things come partly from our genes that we inherited from our parents and partly from everything that happens to us after our genes come together. Our genes come together when we are still only a single cell, so that leave a lot of time for other things to happen. You can imagine how complicated it is to figure out what comes from our genes and what comes from our environment (everything around us).

When I was a graduate student, I did research on the behavior of Paramecium, which are animals with only 1 cell. We could change their genes one at a time and see how their behavior changed. Changing one of the genes made Paramecium that could only swim forward - we called them 'pawns,' like the chess piece. Changing another gene made Paramecium that usually swam normally, but when we put them in a salt (sodium chloride) solution, they swam backward for a long time. We called them 'paranoiacs.' So even in an animal that has only 1 cell, the behavior comes partly from the genes and partly from what happens to them.

This is a very important question, and if you keep thinking about it, you will keep finding new ways to understand it for the rest of your life.