That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Bites-Phineas Gage
Episode Date: April 5, 2023When we discussed schizophrenia in the last episode, we mentioned Phineas Gage. In today's Neuroscience Bite, we discuss why this individual is so highly discussed in the neuroscience of personality a...nd self-control.
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Hi, my name is Olaf Kregolsen, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria.
And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy.
Welcome to another Neuroscience Bite.
Well, on the episode on Sunday, I mentioned the schizophrenia.
And in the middle of the episode on schizophrenia,
I mentioned Phineas Gage.
And I always assume that everyone knows Phineas Gage
because if you do an intro to neuroscience class
or an intro to psych course,
inevitably the story of Phineas Gage comes up.
But you might have forgotten
or you might not have done those courses.
So on this bite, the story of Phineas Gage
and why neuroscience is obsessed with him.
Phineas Gage lived in the mid-1800s. He was an American railroad construction foreman.
And basically what he's known for, I have never heard of whether he was a good foreman or not,
but what he was known for is there was an accident when they were building a railway track and he had
a large metal iron rod that basically went up through his eye
and basically wiped out his entire left frontal lobe, but he survived.
So the bar literally went up into his orbital socket and came out the top of his head,
and he survived this.
But why he studied isn't because he survived.
That's amazing in itself.
And in fact, I forget where it is, but you can actually see the iron spike that happened to him.
And his skull is available to be seen too, although they keep it protected and only break it out sometimes.
But what happened was the change to his personality.
And in fact, the quote that everyone always says is that
for the, he lived 12 years after the accident was that his friends and family basically said
that he was no longer Gage. Now, what they meant by that was before the accident, Phineas Gage was
this engaging person. You know, he talked, he liked to have a bit of fun. He would do things,
go out, and that.
And then after the accident, he was basically a different person.
He was no longer nice.
He was pretty loathsome.
He liked to sit on the couch.
He didn't like to work.
He basically lost his social skills.
He lost his personality, and he was just the sort of person that sat there
and occasionally got angry and said naughty things.
So that's the story of Phineas Cage.
And why we tell it is because it shows just how our personality is controlled by our brain.
You know, admittedly, he had a pretty large iron bar through his head, but that damaged the left frontal lobe. That
changed his entire personality and it changed his ability to control his actions. And there you go,
the story of Phineas Gage. So the left prefrontal cortex, we've talked about the prefrontal cortex
in a lot of things, building worldviews, executive control, but it also controls literally who we are and our ability to engage
in an appropriate manner in the world. All right, that's another neuroscience bite. Don't forget
the website, thatneuroscienceguy.com, links to Patreon and our Etsy store. Of course,
DM us ideas for season five at thatneuroscienceguy on Twitter. And of course, thank you for listening to the podcast.
Thank you so much for subscribing. It really helps. My name is Olav Kregolsen and I'm that
neuroscience guy. I'll see you on Sunday for another full episode of the podcast and our last
of season four.