RQ: How are athletes’ brains unique?
Part 1: MLA Citation
Pam Belluck “Can an Athlete’s Blood Enhance Brain Power?” The New York Times Dec. 20, 2021 NYtimes.com
Part 2: Summary
In the article “Can an Athlete’s Blood Enhance Brain Power” Pam Belluck describes many situations in which athletes might use their brain power from practices or individuals who only train out and perform aerobic exercises. She talks about doctors who tested protein and and injections for secondary blood on mice to find tests of its learning and memory. According to Rudolph Tanzi, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, he is witnessing numerous studies in which proteins produced outside the brain enter the brain during exercise and are beneficial for enhancing brain health, cognition, and illness. Dr. Wyss-Coray who is also a researcher made one mice run and the other mice still which wasn’t running. After 28 days the researchers injected them with blood plasma and they received better results on the runner mice since it has developed learning and memory. The research team also found that the brains of mice with runner blood produced more several types of brain cells and generate new neurons. This, in my opinion, demonstrates how exercise and movement, particularly for athletes, can enhance numerous brain cells and neurons, improving memory and learning while also lowering the risk of disease or cancer.
Part 3: Rhetorical analysis
The genre is a personal narrative. Her tone in the article is informative and factual. Belluck used ethos using Dr. Wyss-Coray, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford who has done this experience which proves the development of an athletes brain. The target audience is social media, athletes and non athletic humans. The purpose of this article is to show the proven experiment on how athletes brains are more improved than a regular person. The source is The New York Times. It’s a credible source because A Reuters Institute survey in 2021 put the number of digital subscribers at around 400,000, and ranked The Times as having the sixth highest trust rating out of 13 different outlets polled. Additionally, Bellucks credibility stems from her status as an American journalist and author. She writes on science and health for The New York Times and is the author of the nonfiction book Island Practice, which is being adapted into a television show. She received the Nellie Bly Award for Best Front Page Story and shared a Pulitzer Prize.
Part 4: Notable Quotes
“We’re seeing an increasing number of studies where proteins from outside the brain that are made when you exercise get into the brain and are helpful for improving brain health, or even improving cognition and disease.”(Rudolph Tanzi)
“The team also found that the brains of mice with runner blood produced more of several types of brain cells, including those that generate new neurons in the hippocampus, a region involved in memory and spatial learning.”(Pam Bellucks)
“After 28 days, the researchers took a third group of mice that also did not exercise and injected them with blood plasma, the liquid that surrounds blood cells, from either the runner mice or the non-runner mice. Mice receiving runner blood did better on two tests of learning and memory than those receiving blood from the non-runner mice.”(Rudolph Tanzi)
