easy · LSAT Reading Comprehension
For most of the twentieth century, scientists held that the adult brain was structurally fixed, generating no new neurons once development was complete. That view has since been overturned by evidence of adult neurogenesis. In rodents, researchers found that interventions such as environmental enrichment and physical exercise measurably raised the rate at which new neurons appeared in the hippocampus. Translating these gains into human therapies, however, remains a formidable challenge, since the rate of neurogenesis in humans appears far lower than in rodents.
The author mentions 'environmental enrichment' and 'physical exercise' primarily in order to illustrate which one of the following?
- Particular interventions can boost the pace at which new neurons are produced, at least in laboratory animals.
- These two activities are, by themselves, the only established way to cure Alzheimer's disease in patients.
- The adult human brain regenerates its neurons at exactly the same rate that is observed in the rodent brain.
- Such activities reshape brain structure only in early childhood and have no measurable effect thereafter.
- The published evidence for adult neurogenesis in rodents fails to meet accepted standards of proof.
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