easy · LSAT Reading Comprehension
A passage on neurobiology recounts that for most of the twentieth century scientists believed the adult brain was fixed and incapable of forming new neurons. A principal source of this belief, the passage notes, was clinical experience with brain injury: damage to an adult brain usually produced permanent loss of function, in sharp contrast to the more complete recovery frequently seen when children suffered comparable injuries.
According to the passage, which one of the following best explains why twentieth-century scientists believed the adult brain was fixed?
- Clinical experience indicated that injuries to the adult brain ordinarily led to permanent loss of function.
- Early regeneration studies on rodents were mistakenly assumed to apply directly to adult human subjects.
- The hippocampus alone was believed to be the one region of the adult brain capable of regeneration.
- Scientists had not yet developed the staining techniques needed to detect newly formed adult neurons.
- Adult patients were repeatedly observed to recover from comparable brain injuries more fully than children did.
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