1. PHINEAS GAGE Gloria Mensah, Rachelle Blash, Madison Carr, Adina Beslagic

2. The Story • Phineas Gage was a railroad worker • On September 13th, 1848 he was working on a railroad bed and an explosion went off with the tamping iron he was workingwith • The iron weighed 13 pounds and penetrated his left cheek, went through his brain, and landed several yards away • He was conscious after the accident and was able to communicate with his physician, Dr. John Marytn Harlow • After being treated by Harlow for 10 weeks, Gage went home

4. After the Accident • The tamping iron went directly through Gage’s frontal lobes which affected his personality • Damage to frontal cortex leads to a complete loss of social inhibitions, explaining the inappropriate behavior • He worked several jobs afterwards because his old employer would not take him back • He moved back in with his mother and died in 1860 from a series of seizures • Gage was the first to provide evidence that the frontal cortex is involved in personality.

5. Personality Changes • Before the accident • Capable • Efficient • Well-balanced mind • Shrewd, smart business man • After the accident • Extremely profane • Showed little respect for those around him • Impatient and obstinate • Indecisive • Friends said he was “no longer Gage”

6. Frontal Lobe • Controls: • Motor function • Problem solving • Spontaneity • Memory • Language • Considered our emotional control center and is home to our personality • Initiation • Judgment • Impulse controls • Social behavior • Sexual behavior

7. Lobotomy • Lobotomy: surgical incision into the frontal lobe of the brain to severe one or more nerve tracts, a technique formerly used to treat certain mental disorders, but now is rarely performed • Lobotomies were common from 1949 to 1952 • By cutting certain nerves, lobotomies get rid of “excess emotion and stabilize a personality” • Gage’s accident was an accidental lobotomy

8. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. (n.d.). Harvard. Retrieved September 11, 2013, from https://www.countway.harvard.edu/menuN • Phineas Gage Case. (n.d.). Harvard. Retrieved September 11, 2013, from https://www.countway.harvard.edu/menuNom • The University of Akron : Lobotomy. (n.d.). The University of Akron : UA Home. Retrieved September 12, 2013, from http://www.uakron.edu/gage/lobotomy.dot • The incredible case of Phineas Gage | Mo Costandi. (n.d.). Mo Costandi | Neuroscience writer. Retrieved September 12, 2013, from http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/12/04/the-incredible-case-of-Phineas-gage/ • Traumatic Brain Injury Resource Guide - Frontal Lobes. (n.d.). Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation and Resource Guide. Retrieved September 12, 2013, from http://www.neuroskills.com/brain-injury/frontal-lobes.php • Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine. History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2013, from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Phineas-Gage-Neurosciences-Most-Famous-Patient.html?c=y&page=1