Phineas Gage Case Study

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1. 3 anatomical factors, which may contribute to the vulnerability of younger individuals:

• Weaker neck muscles in proportion to a larger head: this would make it harder for younger adults (pre-high school) athletes to connect and increase their cervical muscle strength to their head at the time of impact of a collision, and therefore increase the effective mass of their head. Adults do not have this problem.
• Water content: the younger individual’s brain is still developing, so it is hypothesized that “differences in glutamate receptor expression, expression of aquaporin 4 by microglia, and brain water” make it more susceptible to brain injuries and swelling when compared to adults (Meehan et al. 3).
• Vasculature: younger individuals
…show more content…
Phineas Gage was a railroad foreman in the 1800’s that survived a work accident, which resulted in a “iron rod— weighing 131/ 4 pounds and stretching 31/ 2 feet from its pointed tip to its flat base 11/ 4 inches in diameter” being driven through his skull (Carroll et al. 143). His accident and location of his injury “ the left frontal lobe” led his doctor to recognize that different areas of the brain where responsible for different functions and that head injuries can indeed lead to personality changes. Gage’s injury had no effect of his memory, speech, or intelligence, but it affected his personality so much so that friends and close relatives no longer recognized him. “He had lost what scientists now call executive function: the ability to plan, to organize, to troubleshoot, to reason” (Carroll et al. 145).

5. Dr. Paul Broca “Broca 's area” was a naturally inquisitive scientists whose “research on Leborgne’s and Lelong’s brains had provided the foundations for modern neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience since it gave credibility to the theory of localization of brain function” (Carroll et al. 145). HM series of epilepsy allowed doctors to figure out the hippocampus and injury to the hippocampus can affect the personality and speech patterns of its

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