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Who Is

PHINEAS gage?

An accident with a tamping iron made Phineas Gage history’s most famous brain-injury survivor!

The Iron bar was 43 inches long, 1.25 inches in diameter and weighed 13.25 pounds

In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman working on a railroad bed in Cavendish, Vermont. On September 13, as he was using a tamping iron to pack explosive powder into a hole, the powder detonated. The tamping iron shot up and penetrated Gage’s left cheek, ripped into his brain and exited through his skull.

Replica model of Gage’s skull using neuroimaging techniques Measurements from Gage’s skull determined the exact placement of the entry and exit point of the iron rod!

HOW DID THIS EFFECT GAGE?

life

pERSONALIY

bRAIN

mood

The left frontal lobe was damaged by the Iron rod. This area is responsible for emotional processing and rational decision-making. Which was said to be evidenced in Gage's behaviour.

Peer's of Gage describe him as having undergone profound personality changes because of his injury. He is often reported as having permanently lost his inhibitions, Some reports state that he became violent.

Reports suggest friends of Gage said he was " No longer Gage". The railroad company also refused to take the once capable Gage back due stating "he is not stable, irreverent and indulging at times in the grossest profanity".

Gage went onto work as a stagecoach driver then as a farm hand in Santa Clara .Gage however went onto suffer convulsions of increasing severity, and consequently died in 1860, at the age of 36.

Want to know more about Gage and all the other facinating cases out there ? Speak to Our UCLAN Psychology Department today about studying one of our Psychology courses!