Phineas Gage (Psy/360) Uop

Phineas Gage Andrea M.

Knepper PSY/360 January 16, 2012 Dr. Dione Johnson Phineas Gage Phineas Gage, a 25 year old rail line worker, experienced a severe brain injury, and survived. Phineas and his work crew excavated rock in order to clear the way for a new rail line in Cavendish, Vermont (Neurophilosophy. com, 2006).

This entailed drilling holes into the rock, filling the rock with gunpowder, a fuse, and sand. Once these items were placed into the hole, an iron rod was used to tamp them into place, directing the blast into the rock.The exact reason for the misdirection of the blast is unsure, though it has been speculated upon that the fourth step, adding sand, was skipped. The gunpowder exploded prematurely, driving the iron tamp directly through the left cheek, and exited out the top of Gage’s skull. Gage remained conscious during his transportation to a local doctor.

Harlow, the physician who treated Gage, began to clean his wounds (Neurophilosophy. com, 2006). Harlow removed bone fragments, and replacing larger skull fragments still attached by skin and muscle. Harlow then closed the entrance and exit wounds.Gage seemed to be recovering, but fell ill with a viral infection, putting him into a semi-comatose state. Gage recovered from the infection, and began to live a normal life.

It quickly became evident that Gage was suffering from mental incapacities due to his brain injury (Bellows, 2006). Dr. Harlow documented that Gage “was fitful, irreverent, indulgent at times in the grossest profanity, manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating”.Gage seemed to possess the personality of a child. The cerebral cortex suffered damage when the rod was expelled from Gage’s brain. The cerebral cortex, with regions surrounding the cerebral cortex, is crucial to cognitive function (Willingham, 2007).

One surrounding region, the amygdala, is the area which supports emotional information. Another region, the hippocampus, is responsible for retaining and retrieving memories. Damage to the prefrontal cortex can affect cognitive function, such as problem solving, reasoning, and planning.Dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex is often found in patients suffering from affective disorder, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Using the somatic marker hypothesis, first studied by A.

Damasio, research shows the inability to learn from previous experiences shows dysfunction, often to the amygdala or the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Moss, 2011). With the somatic marker hypothesis, evidence showed the in a brain with no ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage, the brain would send signals to the body in the event of threat to self.The brain emits sensations to the body, giving all over sensations, based on past experiences. This can be from a negative experience, such as fright, or a positive experience, such as winning a bet while gambling. In a brain with ventromedial prefrontal cortex, appropriate emotions toward an experience are not exhibited.

This type of damage or dysfunction within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use life experiences to appropriate the proper emotional response. Dysfunction makes it difficult to react with the proper emotion.For example, when approached by a bully, an individual with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage may react by laughing as if someone was telling a joke, rather than adopt a fight or flee reaction. In the case of Gage and his brain injury, it was determined his injuries were localized to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This injury brought Gage around to childish inappropriate behaviors and misdirected emotions.

The injury made it impossible for Gage to incorporate memory into somatic markers, making higher level cognition virtually impossible, even though he may have reacted appropriately before the unfortunate accident.The story of Phineas Gage is a very tragic one; it is also a very enlightened story. This case answered many questions about brain function, cognitive function, and the somatic marker hypothesis. Questions were also answered about the correlation between the brain and the body. While the changes in Gage’s mental capacity was unexplainable at the time of the accident, his symptoms were later reevaluated, giving more insight to the complications of a brain injury. Bellows, A.

(2006). Damn Interesting: Phineas Gage’s brain injury.Retrieved on January 16, 2012, from http://www. damninteresting. com/phineas-gages-brain-injury/ Moss, S. (2011).

Psychlopedia: Somatic Marker hypothesis. Retrieved on January 16, 2012, from http://www. psych-it. com. au/Psychlopedia/article.

asp? id=408 Unknown (2006). Neurophilosophy: The incredible case of Phineas Gage. Retrieved on January 16, 2012, from http://neurophilosophy. wordpress. com/2006/12/04/the-incredible-case-of-phineas-gage/ Willingham, D.

T. (2007). Cognition: The thinking animal (3rd ed. ).

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.