Self-paced
Support Brain scans of people exposed to certain neurotoxins reveal brain damage identical to that found in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. ████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ███████████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████ █████████████ ████████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ████████
Argument Summary
We're told that brain scans of people who have been exposed to some neurotoxins show brain damage identical to the brain damage in people suffering from Parkinson's disease. Based on this fact, the author makes two causal claims: these neurotoxins cause this type of brain damage, and the brain damage itself causes Parkinson's disease. The author concludes that brain scans can be used to determine who is likely to develop Parkinson's disease.
Analysis: Notable Flaws
The brain scan evidence might show that the neurotoxins cause this type of brain damage, but it doesn't provide any support for the claim that "the brain damage itself causes Parkinson's disease." We're not told that the people in the brain scans developed Parkinson's disease because of the brain damage they suffered; for all we know, Parkinson's disease itself causes the brain damage, or both the brain damage and Parkinson's are caused by some other factor. There's also a potential flaw in the conclusion that brain scans can determine ahead of time who is "likely" to develop Parkinson's, but with these initial pre-phrases in mind, we can go to the answer choices and proceed by elimination.
9.
The argument contains which one ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███████
a
It fails to █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ██████
Incorrect. The argument doesn't talk about other methods or claim that brain scans are the most accurate way to diagnose Parkinson's disease.
b
It overestimates the ██████████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████ █████████████ ████████
Incorrect. The argument never says anything about determining appropriate treatments for Parkinson's disease.
c
It mistakes a ███████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███ █ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████
Correct. The argument assumes that since this type of brain damage is correlated with Parkinson's disease, the brain damage must cause Parkinson's disease, rather than the other way around, or some other factor causing both
d
It assumes that ██████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ████████
Incorrect. How early people want to know about their likelihood of developing Parkinson's disease isn't relevant to the argument.
e
It neglects to ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ███████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████
Incorrect. The argument talks about diagnosing Parkinson's disease, not about treating it or monitoring its progression.