Phineas Gage Research Papers

Have you ever wondered what Phineas was like after his accident? We read the book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleishman (“Putting Phineas Together Again”). Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (“The Right Sort of Risk”). Phineas Gage was struck through the cheek and frontal lobe with a metal rod. He is important because he lived for 11 and a half years after his accident. The things that are interesting to me are how he was able to live for 11 and a half years after his accident. His mindset after his accident was like a child. That is why he could get along with kids better than adults. He was not able to make decisions on his own because that part of the brain was damaged. Phineas’s behavior is similar to an adolescent’s because his prefrontal cortex is damaged so he can’t make decisions on his own.

After Phineas’ accident, he acted similar to an adolescent. Phineas acts like a child. “A child in his intellectual capacities and

I know this because in the text it says, “The case of Phineas Gage suggests that we are human because our frontal lobes are set up so we can get along with other humans”(13). This shows that Phineas’s damaged his prefrontal cortex and sense his frontal lobe is damaged, it is harder for him to get along with other people. Adolescent limbic systems are already mature, but the prefrontal cortex is not mature yet. In the text it tells me, “The core idea is that, in young adolescents, the limbic system is already mature and particularly sensitive to the rewarding feeling that risk-taking sometimes elicits. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex—which stops us acting on impulse and inhibits risk-taking—is not yet mature”(7). This shows that it is harder for adolescents to make decisions and plan things because their brain isn’t fully