Phineas Gage:
Neuroscience’s most famous patient.
From an honorable gentleman to an unhinged character.
Ashlyn Wyler
Psychology
Instructor Kristi Bundrick
September 11, 2014
Abstract
The reason we started researching the human brain, in the 1800s, is because of Phineas Gage, a man who first had intelligence and reliability. But when injured, through his brain, became a man with little integrity and no way of controlling his emotions. In 1848, railroad foreman Phineas Gage was preparing to blast through some rocks in the ground, when a 13 pound iron rode, triggered by an explosion, sent the rod straight through the side of Gage’s cheek and out his head. Thirty minutes later, Gage sat on the steps of his porch, patiently waiting for, …show more content…
While he was waiting his astounded coworkers kept up a conversation with him as if nothing ever happened. But something terrible did happen. The rod that shot through Gage’s head had caused severe damage to his brain. Yet amazingly enough, he survived another 12 years, before he finally died May 21, 1860.
Phineas Gage How many times have you wished you could take back something you said or did that profoundly affected your life? Because of the frontal lobe in your brain, you have the ability to choose your words and actions that associate with your emotions, but there was a man who could not. Phineas Gage was born July 9, 1823. He became a crew member of a railroad construction team in Vermont when he was around 25 years old. He was a worker who mined rocks to make way for the railroad track. This involved drilling holes into stones and filling them full of dynamite powder. A fuse was then inserted, and the entrance to the hole was covered, so the force of the explosion would only blow up the …show more content…
On our way, I tried to make a berm that went up one side of the hill, with the other side going down into a ditch. Riding up the berm was a breeze, but coming down, I realized it became too difficult to straighten out the handle bars. I tumbled over the side of the trail and down into the ditch. In the processes the four-wheeler had hit a large boulder and flipped up, throwing me over the handle bars and face planting me into the dirt and rocks. Surprisingly the four-wheeler flew over me and landed right side up, undamaged. But my head wasn’t okay. I obtained a massive concussion when slamming my head into the ground, which caused a small amount or trauma to my brain. A week later, when I was back in school, I realized something wasn’t quite right about my learning skills. Before, the way I memorized things was to picture something about the word and it would stick in my mind forever. Later on, I found out the only way I could remember anything was to write it down over and over again. I also learned my walking was a little off. Whenever I stepped my foot would roll from the outside in. This is probably what causes me to sprain my ankles
Neuroscience’s most famous patient.
From an honorable gentleman to an unhinged character.
Ashlyn Wyler
Psychology
Instructor Kristi Bundrick
September 11, 2014
Abstract
The reason we started researching the human brain, in the 1800s, is because of Phineas Gage, a man who first had intelligence and reliability. But when injured, through his brain, became a man with little integrity and no way of controlling his emotions. In 1848, railroad foreman Phineas Gage was preparing to blast through some rocks in the ground, when a 13 pound iron rode, triggered by an explosion, sent the rod straight through the side of Gage’s cheek and out his head. Thirty minutes later, Gage sat on the steps of his porch, patiently waiting for, …show more content…
While he was waiting his astounded coworkers kept up a conversation with him as if nothing ever happened. But something terrible did happen. The rod that shot through Gage’s head had caused severe damage to his brain. Yet amazingly enough, he survived another 12 years, before he finally died May 21, 1860.
Phineas Gage How many times have you wished you could take back something you said or did that profoundly affected your life? Because of the frontal lobe in your brain, you have the ability to choose your words and actions that associate with your emotions, but there was a man who could not. Phineas Gage was born July 9, 1823. He became a crew member of a railroad construction team in Vermont when he was around 25 years old. He was a worker who mined rocks to make way for the railroad track. This involved drilling holes into stones and filling them full of dynamite powder. A fuse was then inserted, and the entrance to the hole was covered, so the force of the explosion would only blow up the …show more content…
On our way, I tried to make a berm that went up one side of the hill, with the other side going down into a ditch. Riding up the berm was a breeze, but coming down, I realized it became too difficult to straighten out the handle bars. I tumbled over the side of the trail and down into the ditch. In the processes the four-wheeler had hit a large boulder and flipped up, throwing me over the handle bars and face planting me into the dirt and rocks. Surprisingly the four-wheeler flew over me and landed right side up, undamaged. But my head wasn’t okay. I obtained a massive concussion when slamming my head into the ground, which caused a small amount or trauma to my brain. A week later, when I was back in school, I realized something wasn’t quite right about my learning skills. Before, the way I memorized things was to picture something about the word and it would stick in my mind forever. Later on, I found out the only way I could remember anything was to write it down over and over again. I also learned my walking was a little off. Whenever I stepped my foot would roll from the outside in. This is probably what causes me to sprain my ankles