Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Phineas Gage

1. Who was Phineas Gage?

He is the most well-known individual who survived a harsh brain damage. For the most part, the doctors discovered the correlation between personality and the front parts of the brain because of the 25-year old patient Phineas Gage. Previous to his accident, he worked as the foreman of a railway construction site arranging the bed of the Rutland and Burlington Rail Road.

2. Describe the event which caused his injury.

Phineas Gage was working on the railway construction site close to Cavendish, Vermont. He was charging a hole drilled in a rock with the finality of blasting. The hole contained fuel and powder. Phineas Gage got distracted by looking at his men working in the pit. He therefore dropped the iron on the charge, and consequently, the tamping iron produced an explosion. The three foot long and fourteen pound tamping rod propelled into his cheek bone and through his head, damaging his frontal lobe and landing 100 feet behind him.

3. What happened to him as a result of his injuries?

When he arrived at the hospital, the doctor reported that Phineas Gage was cognizant, had a normal heartbeat, and a regular reaction of his pupils. He did not feel pain and still possessed the ability to reason. Nevertheless, after ten weeks from recovering, the doctor noticed a dramatic and negative change in his demeanor and character of Gage. Everyone affirmed that Gage was a reliable, dependable, and popular person. After to the accident, he became the opposite. He never recovered his old-self again after the hurtful injury. The loss of his frontal cortex caused a loss in his social inhibitions. He became offensive and irreverent. Eleven years later, he had epileptic seizures and died a year later.

4. What did we learn about the brain based on this case study?

From Phineas Gage’s case study, we can learn that the frontal cortex is involved in the personality of an individual. The frontal cortex plays a huge role in the social cognition and executive function of a person. Gage did not lose a precise mental skill, like the ability to follow directions or to speak. Nonetheless, his behavior and ethical sense were distorted. Psychologists now recognize that parts of the cortex are concerned in general mental processes.

5. Explain the idea of brain localization.

Different parts of the brain have the duty to control certain functions. This is known as brain localization. The brain carries out occupations in order to manage specific parts of the human system. This includes: speech, understanding, control of voluntary movement, vision, etc. Each fraction and division of the brain performs activities, but not all the parts direct the same function.

6. Explain the concept of brain lateralization.

The human brain is a corresponding organ. The brain is structured in two halves, which are called cerebral hemispheres. The cerebral hemispheres are similar in some ways. The meaning of brain lateralization refers to the two halves of the human brain which are unrelated. Both cerebral hemispheres contain functional specializations. The neural mechanisms are controlled in one fraction of the brain, while other activities are functioned in the other fraction.

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