A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science By John Fleishman

In A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleishman it said “A child in his intellectual capacities and manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man” (33). Which is one of the many lines in this book that I have read that have made me wonder about the human brain. Like how could a man survive an accident this crazy or how a person looks like an adult but has the mental abilities as a child? Before this book, I didn’t realize how important our brains are, and how much it controls us. But who really stood out to me was a man named Phineas Gage. Who had a terrible incident at his work? What I mean by terrible is that he had a 3 foot 7 inch long tamping iron enter through his left check an exit out of his hairline, damaging his frontal lobe or prefrontal cortex. Which then made his behavior close to an adolescent, and this is why.

After Phineas’s accident, he has acted similar to an adolescent. In the text it states “Phineas is like a small child who says he is running away from home after lunch and then comes up with a new idea for his sandwich” (33). This shows that Phineas thinks like an adolescent because he can not plan or make good decisions. How I know this is similar to adolescent behavior because it stated

While Phineas’ brain is damaged, an adolescent’s frontal lobe or prefrontal cortex has not fully developed, making their brain similar to Phineas. I know this because in the text it says “Like Phineas, these patients with frontal lobe damage have trouble making decisions” (2). This shows that Phineas’ frontal lobe is similar to an adolescent’s prefrontal cortex. In the text it also said, “At the same time, the prefrontal cortex—which stops us acting on impulse and inhibits risk-taking—is not yet mature” (7). This explains that adolescents don’t always make the best decisions, similar to