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Please share your thoughts and analysis!

by ssgmatter » Wed Jun 16, 2010 6:45 am
Aphasia, an impairment of the capacity to use language, often occurs when a stroke damages the left half of the brain. Many people with stroke-related aphasia recover at least some capacity to use language within a year. One proposed explanation for such recoveries is that the right side of the brain, which is not usually the major language center, develops its latent language capabilities to compensate for the damage to the left side.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the explanation?

a. In a study of local brain activity in people performing a language task, people with stroke-related aphasia showed higher activity levels in the right half of the brain than people who did not have aphasia

b. a blow to the head injuring the left half of the brain can result in impariment of the capacity to use language indistinguishable from that produced by a stroke

c. among people with stroke-related aphasia, recovering lost capacity to use language does not lead to any impariment of those capacities normally controlled by the right half of the brain.

d. a stroke that damages the left half of the brain often causes physical impairments of the right side of the body that lessen over time

e. studies of numerous people with aphasia have indicated that the function that govern language production and those that govern language comprehension are located in separate areas of the brain.

Hi All,

Please explain all of the options with reasone in details.

I will post the OA as this thread progress with responses.
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by albatross86 » Wed Jun 16, 2010 6:56 am
The explanation is that the right side compensates and gives people with aphasia the capacity to use language.

We need something that will support this explanation.

A. This clearly distinguishes between people with aphasia and those without. It also clearly indicates the right brain as being more active in language tasks. This serves as evidence and thus supports the explanation.

B. This just means the left half controls language, which we already knew. Irrelevant.

C. Well this indicates that the regaining has no effect on the right side, so it actually may weaken the explanation.

D. Irrelevant. We don't care about this.

E. This details that the two processes occur in two different areas, but does this support the explanation that the right side compensates? No.

Pick A.
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by asamaverick » Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:03 am
IMO it's A.

The explanation is that the right side of brain compensates for the damage to the left side and thus helps to recover from the impairment. A sums this up correctly with the study on two groups of people which shows that the right side is more active in people suffering from Aphasia.
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by jube » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:04 am
Guys, isn't a basically saying the same thing? For that reason I'd go with E.

Albatross86, can you help me understand why E is wrong?

P.S. What's the OA?
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by albatross86 » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:10 am
jube wrote:Guys, isn't a basically saying the same thing? For that reason I'd go with E.

Albatross86, can you help me understand why E is wrong?

P.S. What's the OA?
We are looking for something that will support the argument that the right brain compensates for language problems caused by aphasia.

E. only tells us that the functions that govern language production and language comprehension are in separate areas. This doesn't mention the right half of the brain, nor does it support any conclusion as to how people with aphasia compensate for language problems caused by aphasia, just that these 2 aspects of language comprehension occur in to separate areas. For all we know, these could both be in the left brain and would thus cast doubt on the original explanation.

A. This gives us a study that proves what the explanation hypothesized. Yes, it is repeating what the explanation is, but with a study and concrete, true results. So it definitely supports the explanation.

Hope this makes sense.
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by jube » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:18 am
albatross86 wrote:
We are looking for something that will support the argument that the right brain compensates for language problems caused by aphasia.

E. only tells us that the functions that govern language production and language comprehension are in separate areas. This doesn't mention the right half of the brain, nor does it support any conclusion as to how people with aphasia compensate for language problems caused by aphasia, just that these 2 aspects of language comprehension occur in to separate areas. For all we know, these could both be in the left brain and would thus cast doubt on the original explanation.

A. This gives us a study that proves what the explanation hypothesized. Yes, it is repeating what the explanation is, but with a study and concrete, true results. So it definitely supports the explanation.

Hope this makes sense.
It does! Thanks.
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by DanaJ » Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:20 am
Received a PM. I would very much like to know the source of this question.

The structure of the argument is the following:
- aphasia occurs after damage to the left side of the brain because of a stroke
- people gradually regain their speaking ability in a year
- the explanation is that the right side of the brain takes over some of the duties of the left side

So your task here is to STRENGTHEN THE ARGUMENT. Before jumping to anything, you need to understand what the argument in itself is: the first two points on my list are premises, while the third is the conclusion. This is why the correct answer choice must have something to do with the facts listed in the third point.

A is the correct answer choice here as some have already pointed out. If you see increased activity in the right side of the brain of people with aphasia as compared to people who do not have aphasia, then that is clearly a sign that the right side is compensating for the loss to the left side.

B is not related to the argument as described above, since it does not present a strengthening point to the idea that the right side is compensating for the left side. B is just a way of proving that aphasia might occur because of different reasons.

C makes the point that when the right side compensated for loss of ability by the left side, the process does not interfere with the normal functions of the right side. However, this option does not affect the argument, i.e. it does not strengthen or weaken the idea that the right side takes over language skills; it's a neutral statement.

D is out of scope because it does not concern language skills and how they are gradually being controlled by the right side. It's simply a statement of something that is unrelated to the argument.

albatross86 makes a convincing point about E: again, this information does not help us with our argument.
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by missionGMAT007 » Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:35 pm
IMO A
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by ssgmatter » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:35 am
DanaJ wrote:Received a PM. I would very much like to know the source of this question.

The structure of the argument is the following:
- aphasia occurs after damage to the left side of the brain because of a stroke
- people gradually regain their speaking ability in a year
- the explanation is that the right side of the brain takes over some of the duties of the left side

So your task here is to STRENGTHEN THE ARGUMENT. Before jumping to anything, you need to understand what the argument in itself is: the first two points on my list are premises, while the third is the conclusion. This is why the correct answer choice must have something to do with the facts listed in the third point.

A is the correct answer choice here as some have already pointed out. If you see increased activity in the right side of the brain of people with aphasia as compared to people who do not have aphasia, then that is clearly a sign that the right side is compensating for the loss to the left side.

B is not related to the argument as described above, since it does not present a strengthening point to the idea that the right side is compensating for the left side. B is just a way of proving that aphasia might occur because of different reasons.

C makes the point that when the right side compensated for loss of ability by the left side, the process does not interfere with the normal functions of the right side. However, this option does not affect the argument, i.e. it does not strengthen or weaken the idea that the right side takes over language skills; it's a neutral statement.

D is out of scope because it does not concern language skills and how they are gradually being controlled by the right side. It's simply a statement of something that is unrelated to the argument.

albatross86 makes a convincing point about E: again, this information does not help us with our argument.
Thankyou Dana.

However, I dont understand how option C is neutral can you please elaborate a more on this.
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by DanaJ » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:46 am
C does not concern language skills: you don't see the word "language" in it. This is why it does not affect the argument (or it's neutral). Our argument is strictly about aphasia (i.e. language problems) and how the two hemispheres deal with it.
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by ssgmatter » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:50 am
DanaJ wrote:C does not concern language skills: you don't see the word "language" in it. This is why it does not affect the argument (or it's neutral). Our argument is strictly about aphasia (i.e. language problems) and how the two hemispheres deal with it.
But it does talk about the recovering lost capacity to use language.....

also i dont understand how come C says that recovering does not affect the other functions of the right side...It only says that recovering does not affect those capacities which i think is the language ability

please advise
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by DanaJ » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:02 am
Oops sorry I misread.

The point still stands though. The argument is the following: the explanation for a recovery of language skills is that the right side of the brain turns on its latent language capabilities. This "turning on" suggests an increase in the right side's activity.

C suggests that people who recover from aphasia do not experience an impairment in the capacities controlled by the right side of the brain. This fact however does not have an impact on the argument, i.e. it does not help us strengthen the idea that the right side compensates for the left side. At most, this option suggests that the right side's activity stays the same.
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