Cognitive Functions in Regards to Phineas Gage

Cognitive Functions in Regards to 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 down the railroad. Gage was using tamping powder to drill holes with a tamping iron. He would use iron to pack the powder in holes and suddenly there was an explosion that led the tamping iron that then was protruding from his left cheek and part of his brain and hanging out of his skull (Twomey, 2010). Every one of Gage's co-workers was looking at him in amazement because he never lost consciousness. The doctor who examined Gage was amazed because he was conscious while he cleaned and bandaged up his wounds. Phineas Gage was a well-mannered person, who enjoyed working before the accident, but afterwards a vicious viral infection had done its toll on Phineas and his 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 the left side of his 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 acumens are 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