Phineas Gage
Megan Libey
PSY 360
Melissa Jackson

Phineas Gage Phineas Gage was a foreman working for the railroad in Vermont. In those days blasting holes was the normal procedure to gain access to lay the railroad down. Gage was using tamping powder to drill holes with a tamping iron. He would use the iron to pack the powder in holes and suddenly there was an explosion which led the tamping iron which was now protruding from left cheek and part of the brain and hanging out from his skull (Twomey, 2010). He had everyone one of his co-workers looking at him in amazement since he never loss consciousness. The Doctor that examined Gage was amazed as well and cleaned and bandages his wounds. Phineas Gage was a well mannered person, who enjoyed working before the accident, but afterwards a vicious viral infection had done the toll and recovery was long and hard. Gage was recovering well physically, but the infection had robbed him of sight in his left eye and decreased sensation on his left face. Gage did return to laying down tracks for the railroad but everyone who knew him saw he was a changed man (Wagar, 2004).
Cognition Functions with Phineas Gage

Antonio Damaiso showed research based on somatic-marker hypothesis in Phineas Gage that allowed people to understand that patients with frontal lobe damage was evidence that brain’s regions for making decisions are strongly connected to emotional centers (Barnes & Thagard). Somatic markers can help pinpoint where the cognition in decision rolls can be biased from looking at characteristics that lead to predictions and responses. Gage had to understand that it would get better but for now it was what it was. Helping the somatic markers to be able to pass emotional responses was due to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the Amygdala. All these regions of the brains are connected into helping relate memory for information (Twomey, 2010). The nucleus accumbens is where the input and output are passed to other gateways throughout the brain.
The Accident of Phineas Gage The accident left Phineas Gage a changed man but the lesion that was in his head only damaged the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex, this accident left a big void in his life meaning that he knew he was changed but could not grasp the reality that people saw through him. His behaviors were altered to an extent of being a young boy again. Phineas Gage had gotten the attention of American neurologist M. Allan Starr; he was a neurologist that was amazed by frontal lobe accidents. Starr had diagnosed Gage with more than impairments to his senses and muscles, but also felt he had altered disposition to mental capabilities (Fleischman, 2002). Gage was more excitable, anxious and then would retract in emotion. Some thought that was how he became a different man after the accident.

The Brain of Phineas Gage The damage that was reported to Phineas Gage’s brain was alarming, but not as bas as one thought. He had damage to three parts, one was his cheek bone where the tamping iron first went in, and the second was the orbital bone by the eye socket and then the last was the frontal part of his brain. The brain was enormously affected by the lesion that the tampering iron caused but many people reviewed his brain and could also see there was damage to the right side. Neurologists that were lucky enough to view the brain saw many differences in what people had said earlier. Gage’s brain was more damaged to the areas affected by language as well. But in Gage’s language it was spared (Fleischman, 2002). Only damage to his behavior was noted. Phineas Gage injuries were often connected to why he could not properly connect memory and cognition. Gage knew and understood that behaviors he was portraying were really not because of him but because of the damage to the area of the brain that was responsible for decisions. Gage learned how to deal with his moods, and to also have problems looking into his future. The cognition was affected by the consequences of the infection earlier in his recovery (Wagard, 2004).
Conclusion
The tragedy of Phineas Gage opened up doors for future neurologists to retrace the emotional and cognition findings of what really goes on in the brain of someone with injuries in the frontal lobe areas. Back in earlier years they had less technology, but today neurologists can fall back on results and complete their own findings. Findings of information that was helpful in learning the ways of what once happened and how they could have had better prognosis for Phineas Gage would have helped his demeanor back then.

References:
Barnes, A., Thagard, P. (1996). University of Waterloo Philosophy Department: Emotional Decisions, Retrieved from www.cogsci.uwaterloo.ca, on February 15, 2012.
Fleischman, J. (2002). Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science. Boston, MA. Houghton and Mifflin.
Twomey, S. (2010). Finding Phineas; Smithsonian Magazine: Retrieved from, www.axiaecampus.phoenix.edu on February 15, 2012.
Wagar, B.M., & Thagard, P. (2004). Spiking Phineas Gage: A Neurocomputational Theory of Cognitive Affective Integration in Decision Making: Retrieved from www.axiaecampus.phoenix.edu, on February 15, 2012.