SAT OwlQuestion bank / Cross-Text Connections
Text 1: For much of the twentieth century, scientists believed that the adult human brain could not produce new neurons. Once childhood development ended, the brain was thought to have a fixed supply of neurons that would only decline with age.
Text 2: In the late 1990s, researchers using a chemical marker that labels dividing cells detected newly formed neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory, in adult humans. Scientists still debate how much new neuron growth continues into old age, but the finding showed that the adult brain is not entirely fixed.
Based on the texts, how would the researchers in Text 2 most likely respond to the belief described in Text 1?
They would agree that the adult brain cannot produce new neurons.
They would claim that new neurons form only during childhood.
They would suggest that the hippocampus is not involved in memory.
They would argue that the belief is contradicted by evidence of new neurons forming in adults.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
Text 1 describes the belief that adults cannot grow new neurons. The researchers in Text 2 found new neurons in adult brains, so they would say their evidence contradicts that belief, choice D.
Choice A is the belief Text 2 overturns; the ongoing debate concerns how much growth occurs in old age, not whether it occurs in adults at all.
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