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Comparison Of Phineas Gage And The Teenage Brain

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Imagine that you were Phineas Gage's coworker looking at a huge iron rod go through the pointy end of a rod enter his left cheekbone, pass behind his left eye, through the front of his brain, and out the middle of his forehead just above the hairline. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science mentions the process of how the accident happened and the recovery after the accident, the Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of a Teenage Brain then cites the process of a teenage brain and showing the thought process of the teenage brain. Both of these texts help tie together the connection of Phineas Gage and the adolescent brain. Phineas Gage was involved in an experiment that went wrong and let's just say it ended with a tamping iron straight through his head. After the tamping iron accident, Phineas's behavior and brain begin to be more similar to an adolescent's behavior and brain because he has made some very impulsive, made risky decisions, and used lots of vulgar language towards women, coworkers, and his peers. …show more content…

Phineas' brain must have been damaged by the prefrontal cortex because he did have lots of similarities to an adolescent with their prefrontal cortex because according to the text, "the prefrontal cortex—which stops us acting on impulse and inhibits risk-taking—is not yet mature, and will continue developing throughout adolescence and early adulthood."(Blakemore 7) Phineas never really seemed very mature and he did seem very impulsive with a lot of the random jobs he liked to do. His frontal lobe had to be damaged because of the impact the accident had on Phineas's

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Paul Thompson in the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” , claims that 14 year old Brazil, charged in last May’s shooting of middle school teacher Gunrow, was found guilty of second degree murder. Paul Thompson supports his by first explaining that Brazil was only 12 when the incident happen. He then says since he was only 12 , his brain was and still is not fully developed. Lastly the author says ,” teenagers are not yet adults , and the legal system shouldn’t treat them as such. Thompson’s purpose is to get the world to know , if children are not yet adults, why are they being treated like one in the legal system in order to stop it.

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In “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains,” Paul Thompson--a neuroscientist at UCLA--argues that minors should not be sentenced as adults because their brains are not the same as adults’ brains. Even though Thompson believes that minors should be held accountable for their crimes, he presents evidence from recent studies to explain the differences between the brains of minors and adults. It is not surprising that Thompson uses logical evidence to defend his position, given that he is a scientist. However, Thompson frequently uses emotional persuasion--or pathos--to convince his readers that sentencing minors as adults is both unjust and uninformed. Through his use of structure and emotionally charged language, Thompson attempts to convince readers

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Inventing Ourselves; The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 1 chose this book because I have an interest in the brain and neurology, something I've been considering as a future career. The brain is something that is so complex and the teenage brain is even more. The adolescent brain goes through so many changes that I and my classmate have all felt not so long ago and the fact that I had the chance to read about it in a book that is very easy to understand and an author who doesn't want to demonize teens as they go through this developmental process. As previously stated this book talks about the development of the adolescent brain. Some major talking points Blakemore goes over are, the brain structure, societal pressure on teens and how it affects their development, why adolescents make the choices they do, and

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In the article, “Kids Should Never Be Tried As Adults” written by Robert Schwartz, it says, “Recent brain imaging technology reinforces …the teenage brain is undergoing dramatic changes during adolescence in ways that affect teen’s ability to

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Thompson provides how he had his own research group for collecting data on teenage brain development. Although Thompson may have experience in this subject field we do not know if he is a completely credible source and if he is trustworthy. “Our colleagues at the National Institutes of Health have developed technology to map the patterns of the brain in individual children and teenagers.” Again, Thompson provides his colleagues as credible sources as a use of ethos in his article. However, they can be students in learning and have no true credibility

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Phineas act's immaturely, rudely, impulsively, and disrespectfully, and with no self-control after his brain injury. The actions of an adolescent but something different from both of their brains. Phineas' brain is completed but stuck in one time when he was younger, but an adolescent is still growing, and their brain isn't yet not done. For example, in the text, Phineas has the passion of a man but he still acts like a "small child" or/and an adolescent, but he has a huge hole in his brain, something which an adolescent does not act off but he in fact does act of this injury. Phineas' brain structure is not like an adolescent, and the way he acts is not because of what an adolescent is going through "puberty" or a change it is because of the tampering iron piercing through a part of his brain that made his act differently from an adolescent but now he acts the same as

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According to Source A, The Ever-Plastic Brain, “Cognitive processes that rely on the prefrontal cortex, including many executive functions such as the ability to inhibit automatic behavior, undergo substantial and protracted development in adolescence.” Phineas’ prefrontal cortex is having damage and adolescent's prefrontal cortex is still growing. This makes finding many things difficult but also easy because they have a few of the same outcomes. However, Phineas’ frontal lobe injury caused his brain to never be the same. So be said, “The iron passage left him alive and conscious but forever changed” (Pg. 253 picture description).

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Phineas has something not accurate about his prefrontal cortex. Likewise, adolescents also have something wrong with their prefrontal cortex. The passage, Putting Phineas Together Again, describes the process of finding the path pf the tamping iron. On page

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She discusses with two experts, the first being a neurologist named Frances Jensen. Jensen states that the frontal lobes of teens not being “fully wired” is to blame for them doing dangerous things (Jensen 3). The metaphor reinforces Kolbert’s thesis because it shows that studying neurology will allow the world to see inside teenagers’ brains. Kolbert ends Jensen’s piece by saying Jensen “provides no empirical evidence that scare tactics work” (Kolbert 3). Although Kolbert agrees with Jensen, she does point out that even Jensen does not know what to do about teens, strengthening Kolbert’s thesis.

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The excerpt from Teen Brain “Still under construction” by NIMH, the author believes that the teen brain is still changing, hormonally, emotionally, and intellectually, which effects a teenagers behavior. To begin, hormonal changes effect a teenagers behavior. Hormones cause stress which creates abnormal behavior for teenagers. “As with reproductive hormones, stress hormones can have complex effects on the brain, and as a result, behavior.” This shows that hormones cause sufficient stress which results in your behavior.

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”(healthychildren.org) It is true that the adolescent brain is still developing and not fully mature, but they should

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The author points out that “Brain imaging studies reveal that the regions of the adolescent brain responsible for controlling thoughts, actions and emotions are not fully developed.” Brain imaging studies have repeatedly shown that the brains in younger people are still developing well over the age of 18. Garinger states that

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He also stated that the physiological changes are related to emotional changes, especially an increase in negative emotions, such as moodiness, anxiety, loathing, tension and other forms of adolescent behaviour. Cognitive views (Piaget), 1896-1980 Piaget stated that the normal thoughts, feelings and behaviours of an adolescent child can be categorised as: Moving towards

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Next, a discussion of Piaget 's stages of cognitive development can help the audience analyze Harry 's behaviors and way of thinking about complex situations throughout the movie. Similarly, Vygotsky 's sociocultural perspective of engaging with more experienced adults, as Harry and Dumbledore do which would also lead into a discussion of Vygotsky 's idea of scaffolding and constructivism. Lastly, an examination of Bronfenbrenner 's bioecological model of human development can help bring all of these systems together. By examining all of these theories, one can gain an interesting insight into the development of the beloved adolescent character, Harry

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In the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains,” by Paul Thompson, he speaks about how adolescents lose brain tissue as they mature. Specifically gray matter, which according to Thompson, “...brain researchers believe supports all our thinking and emotions.” The matter is being purged at a rapid rate. It’s taking with it the cells that support risk-taking, impulses, and self-control. While this shouldn’t prove to be an excuse for adolescents to break the law, it should prove to be an explanation.

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