The Analysis of Two Articles: "Clearance of Snescent Glial Cells" & "Zombie Cells Found in Brain of Mice Prior to Cognitive Loss"

The psychological news article I chose is titled Zombie cells found in brain of mice prior to cognitive loss. The author of this article is Sara Tiner from the Mayo Clinic. This article can be located at the Science Daily website, which can be specifically found at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180919133024.htm (Tiner, 2018).

The article from the news source discussed research on senescent cells. Senescent cells are unable to perform normal tasks in the brain compared to any other cells, but yet they are still alive like the others. These cells are also identified as “zombie” cells. There are two types of senescent cells: microglia and astrocytes. Zombie cells are related to numerous cognitive diseases that are developed over time due to old aging, such as atherosclerosis, osteoarthritis and neurodegenerative diseases – which would specifically be Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s for example (Tiner, 2018).

The study was conducted on mice as their main test subjects. After eliminating senescent cells from old aged mice with diagnosed cognitive disorders, they found that it helped to expand a healthier life span. The researchers manipulated cognitive disorders by manipulating tau protein aggressions by replicating sticky cobweb neurons with specific genetic modifications that were put into the mice. After the tau proteins were successfully inside of the mice, the senescent cells were fully removed. With the senescent cells removed, the mice were able to form memories and did not have any sort of inflammation within their brain although the tau proteins were inside of them (Tiner, 2018).

The scientific article where the study was originally discussed is titled Clearance of senescent glial cells prevents tau-dependent pathology and cognitive decline. The numerous researchers that conducted the study are Tyler J. Bussian, Asef Aziz, Charlton F. Meyer, Barbara L. Swenson, Jan M. van Deursen, and Darren J. Baker. This article can be located in the Nature International Journal of Science (Bussain, 2018). Senescence cells are caused by an irreversible cell-cycle implication, that is linked with a phenotype that is induced through intracellular and extracellular factors (Bussain, 2018).

Scientists have found no reason for the use of these specific cells in the brain. The cells inhibit the protein p16, that have been related to diseases such as atherosclerosis, osteoarthritis, deterioration of other tissues in the brain alongside neurodegenerative diseases (Bussain, 2018). The study used a mouse model with tau-dependent neurogenerative diseases, where the tau neurofibrillary preserved normal cognitive function within the mice. The mice were female mice were three to six months old while the male mice were ten months old (Bussian, 2018).

The tau neurodegenerative diseases accumulate the two senescent cells which are microglia and astrocytes. After clearing the tau neurofibrillary from the brains, the mice preserved to normal cognitive function. The senescent cells were cleared by using an INK-ATTAC transgenic that lead soluble and insoluble neurofibrillary deposition. Senescent cells do play part in tau-mediated diseases and removing these specific neurons can help treat pathologies (Bussain, 2018).

When comparing the two articles, both sources differ very in terms of language. There are no real strategies used by either article to grab the reader’s attention, but the news article is easier to comprehend than the journal article. The vocabulary within the news article was much simpler compared to the journal article which contained complex wording and concepts. The news article tends to make an easier name for the senescent cell by calling it the “zombie cell,” whereas the journal article always refers to it by the scientific name. The news article does accurately relay the methodology, findings, and conclusions of the original study but only briefly. The journal article does go into very close detail about all of the steps the study took as well as every little factor that potentially had an effect on the entire study’s findings.For example, the news article only claims the mice’s age to be “old,” while the journal article lists out the specific month range for them because that was an extraneous variable.

The news article does tend to over simplify variables that were in this study by putting them into more compact and brief sentences. For example, the news article does highlight what and how tau proteins played a spot in the research study, but the journal article discusses what tau neurofibrillary are, how they are made, how they are put into the mouse, what role they played on the mouse, etc. Adding to that, the news article did not cover how the senescence cells were extracted from the test subjects’ brains.

The news article does not cite any research that does “go beyond” what the original researchers claimed, though they claim it is a cure for cognitive diseases when in reality it is only a potential treatment. If a reader were to read only one of the articles, they would draw different conclusions about the psychological topic at hand. Both articles categorize the mice as being the study method as well as discuss how the absence of tau proteins help their mental health. In some cases, I believe popular new articles compared to the scientific journals would mislead a reader for academic information. However, that is not a concern in this news article.

This research topic has taught me that new articles do not pull all of the information from a study in their article because that would be too long, complex, and uninteresting to some readers. Majority of the time the news article will only have the main theories, claims, findings, and methods in their write-up. When reading various articles in the future, I will surely remember that there is much more information out there on this topic than what the media provides. If I am truly interested in a media topic presented, I will be sure to look for original sources in order to attain valid information because I now know many news articles oversimplify certain topics and events, leaving out crucial factors.