The Odd Case of Phineas Gage

On September 13th of 1848, railroad worker Phineas Gage was working on a railroad construction project, tamping gunpowder into a blasting hole with an iron rod. Unfortunately, the gunpowder exploded, shooting the rod skyward. It penetrated Gage's left cheek, ripped into his brain, and exited through the back of his skull!

Surprisingly, Gage walked away, fully conscious, and described what happened to the doctor. The accident left him blind in the left eye. But that wasn't the only consequence; people began to describe Gage as irritated and aggressive. He was no longer mild-mannered and soft-spoken; his personality had completely changed. Phineas later moved from the United States and died after a series of seizures at age 36.

Phineas' odd case is a great yet extreme example of how functions of the brain are localized, and how this manifests itself through psychological behaviors.

Today, Phineas Gage's skull and the tamping iron are on display at the Warren Anatomical Museum on the Harvard Medical School campus.

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Image Credit: 
(1) “Simulated Connectivity Damage of Phineas Gage SkullDisplayWarren.” Wikimedia Commons, 16 May 2012, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simulated_Connectivity_Damage_of_Phineas_Gage_SkullDisplayWarren.jpg.