Jean Pierre P Changeux Antonio Damasio W Popular Books

Jean Pierre P Changeux Antonio Damasio W Biography & Facts

Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable[B1]: 19  survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining 12 years of his life‍—‌effects sufficiently profound that friends saw him (for a time at least) as "no longer Gage". Long known as the "American Crowbar Case"‍—‌once termed "the case which more than all others is cal­cu­lated to excite our wonder, impair the value of prognosis, and even to subvert our phys­i­o­log­i­cal doctrines" ‍—‌Phineas Gage influenced 19th-century discussion about the mind and brain, par­tic­u­larly debate on cerebral local­i­za­tion,​​[M]: ch7-9 [B] and was perhaps the first case to suggest the brain's role in deter­min­ing per­son­al­ity, and that damage to specific parts of the brain might induce specific mental changes. Gage is a fixture in the curricula of neurology, psychology, and neuroscience,​​[M7]: 149  one of "the great medical curiosities of all time"[M8] and "a living part of the medical folklore" [R]: 637  frequently mentioned in books and scientific papers;[M]: ch14  he even has a minor place in popular culture. Despite this celebrity, the body of established fact about Gage and what he was like (whether before or after his injury) is small, which has allowed "the fitting of almost any theory [desired] to the small number of facts we have" [M]: 290 ‍—‌Gage acting as a "Rorschach inkblot"  in which proponents of various conflicting theories of the brain all saw support for their views. Historically, published accounts of Gage (including scientific ones) have almost always severely exaggerated and distorted his behavioral changes, frequently contradicting the known facts. A report of Gage's physical and mental condition shortly before his death implies that his most serious mental changes were temporary, so that in later life he was far more functional, and socially far better adapted, than in the years immediately following his accident. A social recovery hypothesis suggests that his work as a stagecoach driver in Chile fostered this recovery by providing daily structure that allowed him to regain lost social and personal skills. Life Background Gage was the first of five children born to Jesse Eaton Gage and Hannah Trussell (Swetland) Gage of Grafton County, New Hampshire. Little is known about his upbringing and education beyond that he was literate.​​[M]: 17,41,90 [M10]: 643  Physician John Martyn Harlow, who knew Gage before his accident, described him as "a perfectly healthy, strong and active young man, twenty-five years of age, nervo-bilious temperament, five feet six inches [1.68 m] in height, average weight one hundred and fifty pounds [68 kg], possessing an iron will as well as an iron frame; muscular system unusually well developed‍—‌having had scarcely a day's illness from his childhood to the date of [his] injury".[H]: 4  (In the pseudoscience of phrenology, which was then just ending its vogue, nervo-bilious denoted an unusual combination of "excitable and active mental powers" with "energy and strength [of] mind and body [making] possible the endurance of great mental and physical labor".)​​[M]: 346-47 : 6  Gage may have first worked with explosives on farms as a youth, or in nearby mines and quarries.[M]: 17-18  In July 1848 he was employed on construction of the Hudson River Railroad near Cortlandt Town, New York,[M10]: 643  and by September he was a blasting foreman (possibly an independent contractor) on railway construction projects.[M]: 18-22,32n9  His employers' "most efficient and capable foreman ... a shrewd, smart business man, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation",[H]: 13-14  he had even commissioned a custom-made tamping iron‍—‌a large iron rod‍—‌for use in setting explosive charges.​​[B1]: 5 [M]: 25  Accident On September 13, 1848, Gage was direct­ing a work gang blast­ing rock while pre­par­ing the road­bed for the Rut­land & Bur­ling­ton Rail­road south of the village of Cav­en­dish, Ver­mont. Setting a blast entailed boring a hole deep into an out­crop of rock; adding blast­ing pow­der and a fuse; then using the tamping iron to pack ("tamp") sand, clay, or other inert material into the hole above the powder in order to contain the blast's energy and direct it into surrounding rock. As Gage was doing this around 4:30 p.m., his attention was attracted by his men working behind him. Looking over his right shoulder, and inad­vert­ent­ly bringing his head into line with the blast hole and tamping iron, Gage opened his mouth to speak; in that same instant the tamping iron sparked against the rock and (possibly because the sand had been omitted) the powder exploded. Rocketed from the hole, the tamping iron‍—‌1+1⁄4 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter, three feet seven inches (1.1 m) long, and weighing 13+1⁄4 pounds (6.0 kg)‍—‌entered the left side of Gage's face in an upward direction, just forward of the angle of the lower jaw. Continuing upward outside the upper jaw and possibly fracturing the cheekbone, it passed behind the left eye, through the left side of the brain, then completely out the top of the skull through the frontal bone.​​[B1]: 13-14 [H]: 5 ​​[M]: 25-29 ​​​​ Despite 19th-century references to Gage as the "American Crowbar Case", his tamping iron did not have the bend or claw some­times asso­ci­at­ed with the term crowbar; rather, it was simply a pointed cylinder something like a javelin,[K] round and fairly smooth:[H]: 5  The end which entered [Gage's cheek] first is pointed; the taper being [eleven inches (28 cm) long, ending in a 1⁄4-inch (6 mm) point] [V]: 17 ... cir­cum­stances to which the patient perhaps owes his life. The iron is unlike any other, and was made by a neigh­bour­ing blacksmith to please the fancy of the owner.[B1]: 14  The tamping iron landed point-first some 80 feet (25 m) away,[M]: 29  "smeared with blood and brain".[H]: 5  Gage was thrown onto his back and gave some brief convulsions of the arms and legs, but spoke within a few minutes, walked with little assistance, and sat upright in an oxcart for the 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km) ride to his lodgings in town.[H]: 5  (A possibly apocryphal contemporary newspaper report claimed that Gage, while en route, made an entry in his time-book – the record of his crew's hours and wages.)[L1]: 172  About 30 minutes after the accident, physician Edward H. Williams found Gage sitting in a chair outside the hotel and was greeted with "one of the great understatements of medical history":​​[M5]: 244  When I drove up he said, "Doctor, here is business enough for you." I first noticed the wound upon the head before I alighted from my carriage, the pulsations of the brain being very distinct. The top of the head appeared somewhat like an inverted funnel, as if so.... Discover the Jean Pierre P Changeux Antonio Damasio W popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jean Pierre P Changeux Antonio Damasio W books.