Question Description
Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? for SAT 2025 is part of SAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the SAT exam syllabus. Information about Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for SAT 2025 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?.

Solutions for Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? in English & in Hindi are available as part of our courses for SAT. Download more important topics, notes, lectures and mock test series for SAT Exam by signing up for free.

Here you can find the meaning of Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? defined & explained in the simplest way possible. Besides giving the explanation of Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Question based on the following passage.This passage is adapted from Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. ©2011 by Joshua Foer.In 2000, a neuroscientist at University CollegeLondon named Eleanor Maguire wanted to find outwhat effect, if any, all that driving around thelabyrinthine streets of London might have on(5)cabbies’ brains. When she brought sixteen taxidrivers into her lab and examined their brains in anMRI scanner, she found one surprising andimportant difference. The right posteriorhippocampus, a part of the brain known to be(10)involved in spatial navigation, was 7 percent largerthan normal in the cabbies—a small but verysignificant difference. Maguire concludedthat all of that way-finding around London had physicallyaltered the gross structure oftheir brains. The more(15)years a cabbie had been on the road, the morepronounced the effect.The brain is a mutable organ, capable—withinlimits—of reorganizing itself and readapting to newkinds of sensory input, a phenomenon known as(20)neuroplasticity. It had long been thought that theadult brain was incapable ofspawning newneurons—that while learning caused synapses torearrange themselves and new links between braincells to form, the brain’s basic anatomical structure(25)was more or less static. Maguire’s study suggested theold inherited wisdom was simply not true.After her groundbreaking study of Londoncabbies, Maguire decided to turn her attention tomental athletes. She teamed up with Elizabeth(30)Valentine and John Wilding, authors of the academicmonograph Superior Memory, to study tenindividuals who had finished near the top of theWorld Memory Championship. They wanted to findout if the memorizers’ brains were—like the London(35)cabbies’—structurally different from the rest of ours,or if they were somehow just making better use ofmemory abilities that we all possess.The researchers put both the mental athletes and agroup of matched control subjects into MRI scanners(40)and asked them to memorize three-digit numbers,black-and-white photographs of people’s faces, andmagnified images of snowflakes, while their brainswere being scanned. Maguire and her team thought itwas possible that they might discover anatomical(45)differences in the brains of the memory champs,evidence that their brains had somehow reorganizedthemselves in the process of doing all that intensiveremembering. But when the researchers reviewed theimaging data, not a single significant structural(50)difference turned up. The brains of the mentalathletes appeared to be indistinguishable from thoseof the control subjects. What’s more, on every singletest of general cognitive ability, the mental athletes’scores came back well within the normal range. The(55)memory champs weren’t smarter, and they didn’thave special brains.But there was one telling difference between thebrains of the mental athletes and the control subjects:When the researchers looked at which parts of the(60)brain were lighting up when the mental athletes werememorizing, they found that they were activatingentirely different circuitry. According to thefunctional MRIs [fMRIs], regions of the brain thatwere less active in the control subjects seemed to be(65)working in overdrive for the mental athletes.Surprisingly, when the mental athletes werelearning new information, they were engagingseveral regions of the brain known to be involved intwo specific tasks: visual memory and spatial(70)navigation, including the same right posteriorhippocampal region that the London cabbies hadenlarged with all their daily way-finding. At firstglance, this wouldn’t seem to make any sense.Why would mental athletes be conjuring images in(75)their mind’s eye when they were trying to learnthree-digit numbers? Why should they be navigatinglike London cabbies when they’re supposed to beremembering the shapes of snowflakes?Maguire and her team asked the mental athletes(80)to describe exactly what was going through theirminds as they memorized. The mental athletes saidthey were consciously converting the informationthey were being asked to memorize into images, anddistributing those images along familiar spatial(85)journeys. They weren’t doing this automatically, orbecause it was an inborn talent they’d nurtured sincechildhood. Rather, the unexpected patterns of neuralactivity that Maguire’s fMRIs turned up were theresult of training and practice.Q.Which question was Maguire’s study of mental athletes primarily intended to answer?a)Does the act of memorization make use of different brain structures than does the act of navigation?b)Do mental athletes inherit their unusual brain structures, or do the structures develop as a result of specific activities?c)Does heightened memorization ability reflect abnormal brain structure or an unusual use of normal brain structure?d)What is the relationship between general cognitive ability and the unusual brain structures of mental athletes?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? tests, examples and also practice SAT tests.