Roberto Clemente Young Baseball Hero Alejandra Norris EGN/290 – Children’s Literature in a Pluralistic Society April 24, 2013

Identify the primary biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior biopsychology (or behavioral neuroscience). Instead of studying thoughts, feelings, or fears, behavioral neuroscientists (some of whom are physicians or biologists rather than psychologists) investigate the electrical and chemical processes in the nervous system that underlie these mental events. The connection between brain and behavior became increasingly clear during the nineteenth century, when doctors began observing patients with severe head injuries. These patients often showed deficits in language and memory or dramatic changes in their personality. One of the most famous cases was Phineas Gage, who worked as a foreman on a railroad construction site. After Gage accidentally set off an explosion on September 13, 1848, the tamping iron he had been using went straight through his head, crushing his jawbone and exiting at the top of his skull behind his eye. As you can see in the photograph, this tamping iron was no small piece of equipment, measuring 3 feet 7 inches long and weighing over 3 pounds. Although Gage survived the accident (and is believed to have never lost consciousness!), the damage to his brain was so severe and the change in his personality so marked that people said he was no longer the same person. He became very irreverent and used profanity regularly. He was rude, uncivil, and incapable of resuming his work responsibilities. Since its origins in the