Zimmer, Carl.
"Clues to How an Electric Treatment for Parkinson’s Works." The New
York Times.
The New York Times, 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.
The
article I chose to critique is about how the electric treatment for Parkinson’s
disease works. Parkinson’s disease is a disease that destroys brain tissues and
a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which causes people to become paralyzed. Dr.
Starr from the University of California claims that even though the treatment
usually shows immediate effects, it is still not known as to why or how it
works. Deep brain stimulation (dbs) is where electrodes were put into people’s brains and when they were switched on,
people could move. In the beginning, it
was thought that DBS helped stop the neurons that were causing the problems due
to a lack of dopamine. Scientists
discovered that one of the electrical waves produced by the brain called beta rhythm
helped harmonize different parts of the brain. If the beta rhythms are too
strong, sometimes parts of the brains cannot produce more signals. The motor
cortex is the part of the brain that gives out commands and scientists found
out through tests that the signals in that region were synchronized, which
makes it hard to move. The scientists found out that DPS helps people with
Parkinson’s disease by causing the motor cortex to be less synchronized.
This article
focuses on Parkinson’s disease which could affect everybody. By doing experiments
to find out how DPS helps stop the disease, the new information can help
scientists and doctor understand the causes of the disease, and help find new
ways to improve upon treatment.
I thought
this article was nicely written. There was an in-depth look into what Parkinson’s
disease was and the article talked a lot about how the experiment was
performed. The use of quotes was good and I liked how the article was very
clear. It explained what everything was (beta rhythm, motor cortex, etc.) and
why certain experiments were done. I liked how the article talked about what
scientists had originally thought the DPS did, and in the end, it talked about
what Dr. Starr discovered through experimentation. The article talks about how
this new information could treat people with Parkinson’s and even helps people
with other conditions like depression.
Cindy wrote an excellent report on the article “Clues to How an Electric Treatment for Parkinson’s Works.” She did a great job of picking apart the detailed article in order to summarize the most important points of the piece. I liked how Cindy was able to connect the research being done regarding deep brain stimulation to further information about or possibly a cure for Parkinson’s. It was also obvious that Cindy was focused when she read the article because although it was difficult and included a lot of information, she was able to understand it at a level where she could write a thorough report. This report could have been improved if Cindy had included more information in her paragraph about how the article affects humanity because its only one sentence and her idea could be expanded upon. She also could have checked over her report for word repetition and some minor grammar mistakes. From reading the article and Cindy’s current event report, I learned about the possible causes for Parkinson’s disease and how this new treatment can be used to treat other mental disorders.
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