Phineas+Gage+notes+EAT


 * Phineas Gage


 * three foot long- fourteen pound ramping iron went through his head
 * through his cheek and our his head
 * and went in the air and fell about 100 feet behind him
 * the rod was pushed through his head with the force of a cannon
 * he was still breathing and living
 * his eyes were open and he was able to talk
 * he had a regular heart beat... and his pupils were responding to light in the same way
 * he was free from pain
 * while recovering... he had changes in his personality
 * he was fitful, irreverent, impatient, cussed, and was really stubborn
 * he used to be hard working, responsible, and popular
 * he was ready to go back to the work- but his employer didn't trust him any more
 * 11 years after the accident... he had seizers and died
 * the rod passed through his frontal cortex (but we don't know f it effected both frontal lobes or just the left one)
 * it was like a lobotomy
 * it helped to advance the study of the brain
 * damage of the frontal lobes can change personality and social interaction
 * we didn't know the frontal lobes were associated with behavior




 * lobotomy's
 * started in the 40's
 * 1946 a psychiatrist (Walter Freeman)
 * he made conducted the first lobotomy
 * he performed trans orbital lobotomy (ice pick lobotomy)
 * he stuck an ice pick through the guys eye and destroyed the frontal lobe
 * freeman thought that mental illness was because of overactive emotion
 * though that if you destroyed the frontal lobes... then these emotions would stop
 * he performed 2,500 lobotomies before he died
 * it often results in a personality change
 * for mental illness it is supposed to change the personality for the better
 * patients usually don't have any memory of the operation
 * it was first performed in Portugal
 * it is not illegal but it rare


 * epilepsy
 * you remove the part of the brain that has the seizers
 * it has helped study of the brain because we know that we can survive without part of the brain
 * it seems to work and people stop having seizers