September 2007 Section 1 (#20)

[brittany1990]

Hi!

After reading the stimulus and question stem, I identified the question type as justify the conclusion. For my prephrase, I thought I needed to look for an answer that has something about the development of neural connections and influence. After going through the answer choices, I eliminated A, B, and D. I choose C but the correct answer is E. I still can't figure out why E is better than C -- may you please explain why E is the best answer?

Thank you,
Brittany

[moshei24]

Brittany,

If you carefully read the answer choice (C), you will see that it says "the MOST influence." No where in the stimulus does it use such strong terminology. In the stimulus it uses terms like "greater" and "less."

Answer choice (E) is dealing with proportions. It's saying that the development of the neural connections is directly proportional to the influence it transmits. So if the neurons carrying signals down from the cortex to the amygdala are less developed than the neurons carrying signal from the cortex up to amygdala, then we could assume that, keeping the proportions of the carrying signals, the amygdala exerts a greater influence on the cortex than vice versa.

To put it into numerical terms, let's say the development of the neural connections going from the cortex to the amygdala was 1 and from the amygdala to the cortex was 10, then we'd have to have the same 1 to 10 ratio when it came to the influence transmitted between the two. The influence of the cortex on the amygdala would have to be 1/10 of the influence of the amygdala on the cortex.

I hope that was clear. If not, I'm sure someone from PowerScore will clarify it better.



Side Point: Is (C) diagrammed as a double arrow?