Phineas Gage Paper

Cognitive Functions Cognitive functions are the encompassed reasoning, memory, attention, and language that lead directly to the attainment of information humans attain daily. We use cognitive functions daily from the time we wake up and become aware of not only that we have woken up but also if it is light outside or dark, the time it is, and also we perceive what needs to happen next such as if we should begin our day or if we should continue to sleep. The role of the brain in cognitive functions is to allow us to work with information, apply the information, and perform any tasks need to be done using the information we have acquired. Without our cognitive functions, we would not be able to make decisions, or remember any information that we would need to function in normal daily life. Cognitive functions derive from what we store as memory and experience daily, as well as the ability to transfer what we learn from one experience to another situation. But what would happen if we suddenly lost part of our cognitive functons?

Phineas Gage Phineas P. Gage was a 25 year old man that was impaled though this skull with an iron bar while working on a railroad in September 13, 1848. Phineas had just drilled a hole into a rock face to set some blasting powder. However, Phineas missed a step in the positioning of the blasting powder and as the tamping iron struck the rock a spark ignited the blasting powder sending the tamping iron, sharp end first, though Phineas’ skull. The iron bar was about 13 pounds in weight and about 3 feet long. Phineas was thrown back and went into convulsions, however; recovered consciousness quickly thereafter. Phineas spent time recovering in a hotel room, as the attending doctors at the time did not see that he needed to be in a hospital. Phineas had two open wounds, one to his left side of his face which was the entering point of the rod, and one to the top of his head, the midbrain, which was the exit. At first examination Phineas was alert and the attending doctor noted that Phineas vomited causing “pressure to push out about half a cupful of brain to fall out onto the floor” (Grieve, A.W. 2010). Throughout out his recovery period, Phineas was alert and talking, but would vomit quite frequently. The examining doctor would pull pieces of skull from the exit would and would go on to dress the wounds with simple bandages. Although Phineas did not show any obvious immediate mental discrepancies, he did have some complications after such as infection during recovery, confusion and coma. He made an almost complete recovery by April of 1849 although he was unable to return to railway work. What Phineas’ accident revealed about the brain was that the frontal lobes are needed for thinking and decision making. Prior to his accident, Phineas was seen as strong headed, well respected individual who was hard with the men he managed on the railway but was respectable. After the accident Phineas was harsh and used foul language to express himself. Those who knew him prior to the accident would go on to state this was not the Phineas they knew. The damage that Phineas’ brain received damaged his left frontal lobe, revealing to psychologists that not only had his emotions been changed, but also that without the frontal lobes we would have trouble making sense of the environment around us. Frontal lobe damage would cause an individual to lose the ability to solve problems as well as change the personality of the individual. Phineas had damage to his left frontal lobe, causing infection and damage to the brain tissue. The frontal lobes are responsible for assisting us in “choosing between good and bad actions, overriding and suppressing inappropriate social responses and understanding how future consequences result from current actions: (Grieve, A.W 2010).

Our cognitive functions allow us to make decisions as we move through our daily lives. Without our cognitive functions we would not be able to make decisions, or function as normal, independent humans. We would be at the mercy of other to assist us with day to day task. Although Phineas’ accident was tragic, he would open many doors and answer many questions about the brain. Psychologists today continue to learn from Phineas P Gage and his iron bar.

References
Grieve, A.W. 2010. Phineas P. Gage: The Man with the Iron Bar. Trauma 2010; 12: 171- 174 Retrieved from: search.proquest.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu