Phineas Gage Case Study Essay

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Kirsten Malec PSY 110 - 1287 Paper 2 : Phineas Gage February 12, 2018 The Case Study of Phineas Gage Phineas Gage, a railroad worker, had a steel rod blown through his forehead in an accident after some explosive powder blew up suddenly. The metal rod entered through the left side of his mouth and exited at the top of the of his head. Some consequences of his accident included personality and behavior alterations. Following the accident, a case study was implemented. What is a case study? A case study is a method where one person, or individual is studied in depth. During a case study, the researchers goal is to learn everything possible about the individual being studied. One con to case studies is that you typically cannot apply the …show more content…

Each piece connects to another one, and so on. When one piece is damaged, or not functioning right, it affects other parts of the brain. The in depth focused study on Gage helped us better understand the brain and its functions. Earlier noted, Gage suffered behavior problems. This is related to the damage of the motor cortex which is located in the frontal lobes. The motor cortex is a band of neurons located at the back of each lobe in the brain. The neurons are responsible for the movements of voluntary muscles. It communicates to the body by sending out signals to the nervous system, specifically the peripheral. Phineas Gage's case study was important because it provided great detail of the brain, specifically about the frontal lobes, and how they work. In some instances, like Gage's, there is no other way to gain knowledge of something besides doing a case study on the individual. Since researches and medical personal couldn't study Gage's situation by naturalistic observations, it was impossible to do an experiment. Therefore, Gage's case study revealed important insight and information on the

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