Logical Reasoning

PT154 · S2 · Q11 A part of the brain

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A part of the brain called the amygdala is involved in sensing fear.

Information

causal (involved in) The amygdala has some influence on how / whether we sense fear.

causal (destroys) U-W disease destroys the amygdala.

pivot (however) People with U-W disease generally don't experience fear, but they experience extreme fear if they're given a breath that's high in CO2 (low in oxygen), just as some people with normal amygdala do.

Evaluate

Usually when we see pivot wording in Most Supported, it creates some tension between statements. The way we resolve that tension is frequently connected to the correct answer.

Here, how can we synthesize the idea of people who have U-W disease, who thereby don't have a working amygdala (which is involved in sensing fear), who still experience fear?

Is there something special about the fear of suffocating (a breath that is very high in carbon dioxide) that doesn't involve the amygdala?

Goal

It's hard to know what to predict. We just want the most provable answer we can find. But there's a good chance it'll have something to do with reconciling the fact that these people without amygdalae are still capable of experiencing fear in certain circumstances.

11.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

  1. Extreme fear is not the

    Unsupported: other responses

    The only response we have been told people have to a breath high in CO2 is extreme fear. It's certainly very plausible that people could have other responses (this is very mild wording), but we have no support for any other responses.

    1% picked this

  2. Sensing fear is not the

    Unsupported: other functions

    The only function we have been told the amygdala has is related to sensing fear. It's certainly very plausible that the amygdala could have other functions (this is very mild wording), but we have no support for any other function.

    2% picked this

  3. Urbach-Wiethe disease is not the

    Unsupported: other diseases

    The only disease we have been told that destroys the amygdala is U-W disease. It's certainly possible that other diseases can also have that effect, but we have no information about any other diseases, so we have no support for this answer.

    0% picked this

  4. The amygdala is not the

    Unsupported: other parts of brain

    The only part of the brain we were told is affected by U-W disease is the amygdala. It's possible that this disease affects other parts of the brain, but we have no support for that idea.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    The amygdala is not the

    Why this is right

    This is thinly supported, but supported, and since we had no support for the other answers, thinly supported = most supported. Since we're being told about people who don't have amygdalae (or functionally speaking don't, since it's been destroyed) are still capable of sensing fear. There's no way the amygdala is making these people with destroyed-amygdalae sense fear, so there must be something else making them sense fear. Do we know that this something else is a different part of the brain? Definitely not. It might just be something reflexive in the spinal cord, like some other reflexes are. Maybe it's found in the nasal canal. Who knows. But given that fear is a psychological phenomenon and given that we know the brain is responsible for psychological phenomena, it's very plausible that a different body part that causes us to sense fear would still involve part of the brain. Again, the support for this answer is that we know "something besides the amygdala is also involved in sensing fear". If we feel bad picking this answer because that support isn't really sufficient to prove (E) is true, we have to remind ourselves that we're doing Most Supported, not Must Be True.

    Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    96% picked this

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