The Brain Contributes to the Adaptive Success of Animals through the Control and Coordination of Muscle Contractions.

Reading Passage Question

The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the control and coordination of muscle contractions. The brain is connected to the muscles by means of motor nerves. This leads to the survival of an animal only if the timing of muscle contractions bears some relation to purpose. An animal must contract its jaw muscles when its jaw contains something worth biting and contract its leg muscles when there is something worth running to or away from. Animals that have survived are those equipped with sense organs—the eyes, ears, taste buds, skin, and nose—that translate patterns of physical events into nerve impulses in the brain. The brain is connected to the sense organs by sensory nerves. The workings of the sensory system are extremely complex; human senses can achieve more sophisticated feats of pattern recognition than computers; if this were not the case, many tasks now done by people could be done by computers. However, it will be decades before the functions of human sense organs can be duplicated by machines.

Because humans are capable of self-reflection, we feel that our sensory perception and muscle activity are guided by apparent purposiveness. However, both our sense of purpose and complex consciousness may well be genetically engineered. Our genes have created our brains, muscles, and sensory organs to help us and may also have created a kind of “conscious-purpose machine” to direct us to live and reproduce by means of innate drives—hunger, sexuality, communication, fear, and aggression. This machine may also direct higher-level interpretations of these drives. That direction of consciousness is the ultimate genetic control.

“The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the control and coordination of muscle contractions.” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. The passage supplies information to answer which of the following questions?

A) By what means do the sensory nerves interpret what an individual sees?
B) How will computers be able to simulate the functions of the human brain?
C) What are the major differences between human and animal sense organs?
D) What connects the brain to the motor and sensory nerves?
E) Of what value is the sensorimotor system to the adaptive success of animals?

2. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A) argue that genes may control complex as well as basic brain functions
B) explain the relationship between sensory and motor operations of the brain
C) refute a theory about human perception and consciousness
D) explain the principal elements of the adaptive behavior of motor action
E) outline the difference between human and nonhuman information processing

3. Which of the following does the author mention as the source for an individual’s awareness of his or her own consciousness?

A) Information the sensory organs send to the brain
B) The human brain’s power to bring about purposiveness in behavior
C) The ability of human beings to be self-reflective
D) A genetically determined set of survival drives in humans
E) Skill in recognizing perceptual patterns

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