SAT Question 5222ffab: Answer & Explanation

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Neuroscientists Krishnan Padmanabhan and Zhen Chen sought to better understand the workings of the brain’s olfactory system.
• They devised a study using mathematical models.
• They found that certain fibers allow the brain to toggle from one method of processing smells to another.
• In one method, cells in the piriform cortex (where the perception of odor forms) capture olfactory information at a given moment.
• In the other, the cells track changes in olfactory information over time.

Difficulty:Hard

The student wants to summarize the study’s findings. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

To arrive at these findings, which describe dual methods of processing smells in the piriform cortex, Padmanabhan and Chen devised a study using mathematical models.

Padmanabhan and Chen showed that olfactory information is captured by cells in the piriform cortex, where the perception of odor forms.

Using mathematical models, Padmanabhan and Chen devised a study to better understand the workings of the brain’s olfactory system.

According to Padmanabhan and Chen, the brain can toggle between capturing olfactory information at a given moment and tracking changes in that information over time.

SAT Question 5222ffab: Rhetorical Synthesis answer and explanation

Explanation

Why the other choices are wrong