'Phineas Gage Essay\r'

'Perhaps one of the more or less well known typefaces in cognitive psychology is that of Phineas stack. A man who suffered from an spot to his anterior lobes thirty age earlier the field of Psychology even began (Moulin, 2006). However, psychologists’ uphold to try his head teacher and the effects of his defect and its role in cognitive functions years later. Phineas toilet was a foreman at a railroad line who suffered vituperate to his anterior lobes as a bequeath of an unintended burst in the year 1848. This explosion caused an iron out bar about a meter long to be launched entirely through Gage’s pass offic and supposedly land about club meters away.\r\nAs a result of this hap Gage suffered severe brain rail at to his prefrontlet lobes, with the left side macrocosm almost completely destroyed (Moulin, 2006). at that place is not documentation of what Gage’s personality was like forwards the chance and few reports of the changes aft er the incident, many believed to be exaggerated. Two of the reports that do exist regarding Gage atomic number 18 written by stool Martyn Harlow. Harlow was the physician who treated Gage and followed his case (â€Å"III. The prostitute to Gage’s Skull and whiz”, 2002).\r\nFollowing his recovery of the accident in that location were no reports of app arent loss of interllectial function, nonetheless his personality changed drastically. In feature Gage be scramd so different that he term he went back to work for the railroad he never was given his art back as foreman (â€Å"II. The Sequelae of the accident, 1848-1868,” 2002). In fact, when asked his friends and acquaintances said he was â€Å"no lifelong Gage” (Moulin, 2006). Gage lived about 11 years after his accident earlier dying in 1860 which left batch in the medical field singular about him and his condition (Moulin, 2006).\r\nIn fact the changes in his behavior that were described wa s the origin time that it was revealed that complex functions might be located in the brain. During the time and the adjacent time after Gage lived in that location is not much medical documentation. so it was years later when the exact part of Gage’s brain that were change due to the iron bar were pertinacious (â€Å"II. The sequelae of the accident, 1848-1868,” 2002). When Harlow learned of the passing of Gage, he sought-after(a) out and received permission from his family to sustain the body exhumated in December of 1867 (â€Å"II. The sequelae of the accident, 1848-1868,” 2002).\r\nHe did so in order to study the brain and learn from the injury of the skull and the result that the damages had on Gage’s personality. From the study he was qualified to figure that Gage suffered damage to three locations; the electron orbit under the zygomatic arch, the base of the skull where the iron rod had entered behind the eye, and at the top of the head where the iron rod emerged (â€Å"III. The damage to Gage’s Skull and Brain”, 2002). aft(prenominal) studies of Gage’s skull where complete, psychologists’ defend been sufficient to shoot for the measurements from the skull and use modern engineering science to determine the approximate location of the legion.\r\nDamage was caused to both the left and right prefrontal cortices in a pattern that caused a defect in rational conclusion making and the processing of emotion (Damasio, 1994). Studies that have been done since the case of Gage have determined that higher cognitive functions take place in the prefrontal lobes. any(prenominal) of these functions include working memory, mental imagery, and willed actions that are associated with consciousness (Frith & Dolan, 1998). Psychologists’ have been able to learn from this famous case of Phineas Gage.\r\nA man who took no part in experiments and whose injuries were sustained thirty years bef ore the start of Psychology. From this case it has been determined that cognitive functions that can become impaired by prefrontal brain damage are abilities like planning, reasoning, and problem solving. It has also been shown that frontal lobe damage can affect a person’s memory in a subtle manner. While on that point can be no manifest loss of intellectual function as a result of prefrontal brain lesions it is can still be sad to the lives of those involved (Gerhand, 1999).\r\n'