Question

1. The story of Phinneas Gage is well known in anatomy and psychology circles. In 1848, a young foreman on a railroad blasting crew suffered a brutal accident: A 13-pound tamping rod shot through his left cheek, behind his eye, and up through his left frontal lobe. Exiting his skull, the rod flew another 50 feet through the air. Miraculously, Phineas Gage survived, and with few physical problems except for having lost the sight in his left eye. But his personality was forever changed. Once polite and proper, he became by turns obstinate, childish, and crude, prone to uttering gross profanities. One of the two doctors who had been called to the scene of the accident kept track of Gage's behavior and concluded that the accident had destroyed "the equilibrium, or balance, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities." Based upon what you now know about the lobes of the brain, how would you explain the change in Mr. Gage's behavior?

Answer 1

There are four lines in the brain frontal, temporal , parietal and occipital lobe.

Phineas gage had destroyed his frontal lobe which is associated with sensory memory and control important congnitive skills in humans such as memory, language , judgement and emotional expression.