#17 - A group of mountain climbers was studied to determine

[drewwellnitz]

Hello:

I'm having a tough time understanding why C is incorrect. You mentioned C is flawed because "It is quite possible that the different levels of impairment in speech, comprehension and reasoning were simply due to the varying amounts of oxygen required by each function."

To me, if different parts of the brain require different amounts of oxygen to function, that is proof that these areas of the brain [speech, comprehension, and reasoning] are distinct from one another. If they weren't district, as the author claims is now the case, they would all require the same amount of oxygen.

I don't have knowledge of the brain; however, it seems answer choice C is saying these three brain functions yield different levels of impairments, which shows they must be distinct (otherwise they would all be equally impaired).

Thank you for your help in advance!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi drew,

You wrote:

"To me, if different parts of the brain require different amounts of oxygen to function, that is proof that these areas of the brain [speech, comprehension, and reasoning] are distinct from one another."

It's actually not that different parts of the brain require different amounts of oxygen, it's that different activities in the same part of the brain may require different amounts of oxygen. In other words, it's possible that speaking, language comprehension, and judgement require different amounts of oxygen to function even if they are all controlled by the same area of the brain. Usually, people would get enough oxygen that all of these activities work normally; however, during oxygen deprivation such as what occurs at high altitudes, the lowered oxygen levels could affect the activities differently depending on how much oxygen is needed for each activity (even if these are all controlled by the same area of the brain). For example, if speaking requires less oxygen than language comprehension, then the negative impact on speech would be less than the negative impact on language comprehension.