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Phineas Gage Case Study

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Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient, Phineas Gage Phineas Gage is known as one of Neuroscience’s most famous patients due to an accident that occurred while he was a foreman for a crew, who were cutting a railroad bed in Vermont. After September 13 things for Phineas Gage would never be the same, although he survived the ignition of the explosive power that caused his tamping iron to shoot up at him and penetrate his left cheek, hack into his brain and exit through his skull, as well as blind him in his left eye, Phineas Gage suffered from a change in personality due to this incident. Within minutes of the accident, Gage was still conscious and was able to stand up right and recall what had just happened but he would suffer from permanent damage mentally and never be the same person again. …show more content…

The Iron had torn into his brain’s left frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is the primary motor cortex is responsible for motor function, memory, judgement, impulse control, both sexual and social behavior and so much more. After the accident his friends reported that he was no longer himself and that he had trouble sticking to plans, he showed little to no respect to anyone, he had the intellectual capacity of a child and uttered grotesque profanity. With these observations Phineas’ doctor, John Martyn Harlow was able to make a connection between brain trauma and a change in personality and because of that we are now able to see through his documentation the changes that occurred in Phineas’ personality after his brain was damaged and also acknowledge the importance of our frontal lobe and its multiple

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