Phineas Gauge suffered a brain lesion as a consequence of an accident at work. Describe the lesion he suffered and describe how Gauges injury helped explain some of the processes of the affected area of the brain. How did this event help underpin the sch

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Phineas Gauge suffered a brain lesion as a consequence of an accident at work. Describe the lesion he suffered and describe how Gauge’s injury helped explain some of the processes of the affected area of the brain. How did this event help underpin the school of cognitive psychology?

In 1848 Railway worker, Phineas Gauge suffered horrific injuries to the frontal lobe of his brain after an explosion caused a steel pole to penetrate his head.  Despite these injuries Gauge survived but was, reportedly, not the person he was before the accident.  This essay will study the injury Gauge suffered and how it helped explain some of the processes of the area of the brain affected.    It will also study how this accident played a key role in the development and understanding of cognitive psychology.

Phineas Gauge’s accident was one of the first recorded cases of severe brain injury.  Gauge worked as a foreman of a crew who were excavating rocks to make a railway line.  This excavation involved drilling deep holes in the rock, filling them with dynamite then inserting a fuse and plugging the hole with sand.  To do this involved using a crow-bar like tool called a tamping iron.  On the 13th of September, 1848, Gauge, aged 25, was preparing for an explosion using the tamping iron to compact the powder into a hole.  A spark from the tampering iron ignited the powder and caused the iron to propel, at high speed, straight through Gauge’s skull.  It entered his head through the left cheek bone and exited through the top of his head.  Gauge was reported to be conscious, talking, walking and recalling the accident soon after.

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Harlow was the doctor on the scene who treated Phineas Gauge, stemmed the bleeding and treated the wound.  The tamping iron involved in the accident was 3ft 7inches long, 1 ¼ inches in diameter and weighed 13 ½ pounds.  The accident was reported in the Boston Post and the injury described as follows:

“The tamping iron went in point first under his left cheek bone and completely out through the top of his head, landing about 25 to 30 yards behind him.  Phineas was knocked over but may not have lost consciousness even though most of the front part of ...

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