How One Freak Accident Changed the Field of Psychology: The Story of Phineas Gage

Chapter 3 is about biological psychology, going into detail about much of the human body and how it functions. The brain is obviously extremely important, and the prefrontal cortex is arguably the most important aspect of the brain. It is responsible for thinking, planning, and language, and contributes to mood, personality, and self-awareness. Phineas Gage's family and friends know how important the prefrontal complex is better than most. Phineas Gage was a railroad foreman in Vermont in 1848. One day, while using a tamping iron to to press gunpowder into a hole, a nearby flame lit the gunpowder and sent the nearly 4 foot long iron bar flying through Gage's skull and landing over 30 yards from the accident! Amazingly, Gage was able to walk just minutes after the accident and lived for another 13 years. However, both the right and left sides of his prefrontal cortex were damaged, causing severe changes in his personality and leading those who knew him before the accident to say he was "no longer Gage." Gage's survival and subsequent personality changes confirmed that certain parts of the brain can be damaged while others remain unharmed, and proved that the prefrontal cortex plays a significant role in personality. Without this freak accident and Phineas's remarkable survival the study of the brain and the field of psychology would have been set back by years.