NSCI100 : Science News Assignment

Name _____________________ Date ______________________________

Read the article on the next 4 pages and answer the questions below in complete sentences about the scientific study in blue font in the reading.

1. How many subjects were in the study? Do you think this is a representative sample? Why or why not?

2. What was the independent variable in the study?

3. Based on your answer to question 2, describe the experimental group. Also describe the control group.

4. What was the dependent variable in the study?

5. What type of measurement was done in collecting the results?

6. What was the conclusion(s) from the study and how does it apply to people experiencing the Covid-19 pandemic?

How coronavirus stress may scramble our brains

Imaging studies show we should give ourselves a break

By Laura Sanders

URL: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-stress-brain

Science News online: MAY 24, 2020 AT 6:00 AM

I’m on deadline, but instead of focusing, my mind buzzes with unrelated tidbits. My first-grader’s tablet needs an update before her online school session tomorrow. Heartbreaking deaths from COVID-19 in New York City make me tear up again. Was that a kid’s scream from upstairs? Do I need to run up there, or will my husband take care of it?

These hornets of thoughts drive out the clear thinking my job demands. Try as I might to conjure up a coherent story, the relevant wisps float away.

I’m scattered, worried and tired. And even though we’re all socially isolated, I’m not alone. The pandemic — and its social and economic upheavals — has left people around the world feeling like they can’t string two thoughts together. Stress has really done a number on us.

That’s no surprise to scientists who study stress. Our brains are not built to do complex thinking, planning and remembering in times of massive upheaval. Feeling impaired is “a natural biological response,” says Amy Arnsten, a neuroscientist at Yale School of Medicine. “This is how our brains are wired.”

Decades of research have chronicled the ways stress can disrupt business as usual in our brains. Recent studies have made even more clear how stress saps our ability to plan ahead and have pointed to one way that stress changes how certain brain cells operate.

Scientists recognize the pandemic as an opportunity for a massive, real-time experiment on stress. COVID-19 foisted on us a heavy mix of health, economic and social stressors. And the end date is nowhere in sight. Scientists have begun collecting data to answer a range of questions. But one thing is clear: This pandemic has thrown all of us into uncharted territory.6 questions and a 3.5 page -4 pages mix