GE 375 | Case Studies of Brain Injury | Phineas Gage | | Jeff Sorenson | 4/2/2013 | Phineas Gage Tamping Iron Phineas Gage Tamping Iron Trajectory of Phineas Gage Accident Trajectory of Phineas Gage Accident | Trajectory of Tamping Iron from Phineas Gage’s accident Trajectory of Tamping Iron from Phineas Gage’s accident PHINEAS GAGE CASE STUDY 1. Summarize the event leading to the individual’s brain injury, trauma or damage. * Phineas Gage was foreman of a crew of railroad construction workers who were excavating rocks to make way for railroad tracks. This involved drilling holes deep into the boulders and filling them with dynamite. A fuse was then inserted, and the entrance to the hole plugged with sand, so that the force of the explosion would be directed into the boulder.
However a limitation of this study is that the sample size is small so would be difficult to generalise because of individual differences in humans. Having said this, since Phineas Gage there have been many other similar case studies that have the same problem, for example Combat Veterans. Neurosurgery is considered an invasive method as it involves manipulating structures within the brain. The main ways neurosurgery performed are by Ablation or Lesions. Ablation involves surgically removing or destroying brain tissue, and observing the behavioural consequences.
Damage to the amygdala or hippocampus causes loss of emotions and memory respectively. By removing part of H.M.’s temporal lobe which meant some parts of the amygdala and hippocampus, he suffered severe amnesia. He could remember things that happened a longtime ago and even his name meaning that his long-term childhood memory was intact but short-term memory was severely affected. By learning new motor skills but not conscious of them, it showed that the brain has different parts that controlled memory. According to me, H.M.’s inability to recall the words was a problem of consolidation as well as a long term memory problem.
4 marks 3 studies – HM, KF and Clive W MARK SCHEME – KF – impaired stm, unaffected ltm One study which demonstrates that LTM AND STM are different is the study of HM. HM suffered from brain damage due to an operation he underwent to remove the hippocampus from both sides of his brain this was to reduce the severe epilepsy he suffered from. HM’s personality and intellect remained intact but he could now no longer form new long term memories although he could remember things from before his surgery. This could suggest to us that the hippocampus acts as a ‘gateway’ though which new memories must pass before entering permanent
Phineas Gage was a survivor of a horrific injury to the frontal lobes in an industrial accident in 1848. His subsequent personality change provides some of the earliest evidence for the role of the frontal cortex in mental activity. Gage was working as a construction foreman for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad, rock blasting for a new railway line in Vermont. An accidental explosion drove a tamping iron, 3 cm (1¼ in) in diameter and 109 cm (45 in) long, through Gage's head. It entered at the left cheek, passed upwards through the brain and exited the skull through the frontal bone close to the midline.
His request was granted in the form of a police autopsy, which showed that he had a brain tumor(A+E Networks, 2012). This has been debated on whether the tumor caused Whitman to act out in this killing spree, Others say that by the way he planned and carried out the actions of his crime that the tumor did not affect his mental abilities. When we look at the fact, that prior to the shooting spree , Whitman reported severe headaches, and consulted a therapist concerned with his own mental health. Then it may be reasonable, to assume that the tumor later found could have contributed to his killing spree. Medical experts , disagree over whether the brain tumor found in his autopsy had any effect on his actions (A+E Networks, 2012).
On February 20, 1943, a farmer near the town of paricutin was startled by a column of column of smoke rising from the middle of his cornfield. Thinking he had somehow started a fire, he rushed to pu it out, he found out that the smoke was coming from a small hole in the ground, not from an open fire. The farmer thought about how for a moment to smother he fire, and he decided to plug the hole with a rock. Later, when he checced back, he was alarmed by the increased escape of dense, black smoke. Recalling that the ground trembled recently, and noticing that the soil felt hot under his bare feet, he hurried to town to tell the mayor and to bring some people back with him.
This is where you inherit a mental illness from your parents because it has been passed down through your genes which are similar to physical illnesses like diabetes or heart disease. However unlike the infection theory studies have been done with twins, if one has a mental illness the other twin has a 50% chance of developing one as well. However this is also unreliable because you cannot extrapolate that the illness has been passed down through genes it may just run in the family. The next aspect, neurochemicals suggests that a change in chemicals in the brain has caused a mental disorder. Abnormal functioning of the brain can be caused by abnormal levels of neurotransmitters and hormones.
Some reports indicate some “schizophrenics have difficult births which have starved their brain of oxygen” (Waring, 2012). The advancements of MRI scans have allowed researchers to investigate the brains of schizophrenics. Chau & McKenna (1995) found abnormalities such as; smaller corpus collosum, less grey matter in temporal lobes, enlarged ventricles, and reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex (Waring, 2012). Some agrue these abnormalities are not the cause of schizophrenia but that schizophrenia has caused the abnormalities. The biological argument for the causes of schizophrenia are also said to be reductionist as it only looks at a persons physiology and ignores any environmental
In the case of Phineas Gage’s accident researchers found specific locations within the brain which allow particular cognitive functions. In 1848 Phineas Gage underwent TBI (or traumatic brain injury), which helped advance cognitive and neuropsychologist discover and understand more about the human mind. The cliché “A mind is a terrible thing to