The plasticity of the Brain: Case Study: A New Look at Phineas Gage
For over 30 years, Jack and Beverly Wilgus had a daguerreotype portrait—a type of early photograph—of a well dressed young man with one eye closed. Because the photo showed the young man holding what appeared to be part of a harpoon, the Wilguses believed that the man was a 19th century whaler who had lost his eye, perhaps in a whaling accident. It was only after a copy of the portrait was posted online that the couple was told that the object in the man’s hands did not appear to be a harpoon. Then, in 2008, a person viewing the image online posted a comment that the young man may be Phineas Gage, making the “harpoon” the infamous tamping rod that was blasted through his skull and brain. By carefully examining the rod in the daguerreotype, and by comparing the young man’s face to the cast made of Gage’s head after his death, the Wilguses were able to confirm that the portrait is almost certainly that of Phineas Gage, made sometime after his accident. Importantly, this is the only known photograph of the man who became one of the most famous case studies in psychology.
One of the consequences of the portrait’s discovery has been a renewed debate about how Gage’s injuries affected his personality and behavior. Many psychology textbooks explain that the accident left Gage a permanently changed man following the accident, with his once well-balanced, gregarious, and hard-working personality replaced with profane, inconsiderate, and impulsive behavior for the rest of his life. This, however, is not necessarily supported by the few original sources researchers have to go on. For example, although the evidence clearly indicates that Gage had major psychological changes for a period after his accident, we also know that Gage later spent many years driving stagecoaches before he died in 1860, 12 years after the accident.
Studying the brain and how injuries to the brain affect behavior, review this case and discuss the important functions of the prefrontal lobe and frontal lobe. Within your case study, please discuss if many of the psychological changes suffered by anyone experiencing these types of brain injury are permanent temporary?
The newly discovered portrait of Phineas Gage can be found at: http://brightbytes.com/phineasgage/ or by searching the Internet for “Phineas Gage daguerreotype.”
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