Cerebral Cortex and Phineas Gage Debbie Mintz PSY 360 July 25,
2011 Phineas Gage Paper Phineas Gage was a man who was a leader at
his job and was a very likeable person. His family and friends
agree that he would helpful to anyone, he was happy, and easy-going
person. Then he received brain damage to his cerebral cortex, which
is one’s cognitive functions are within their lobes located in the
brain. Humans have four kinds of lobes located within the cerebral
cortex that do different functions.
Human Brain The human brain is covered with tissue known as
the cerebral cortex, which large furrows (fissures) and small
furrows (sulci), and there are ridges between the fissures and
sulci known as gyri. Under the cerebral cortex tissue are four
lobes, each lobe has a role in a humans cognitive functions.
Phineas Gage was a man who received brain damage, and one will be
able to see how it affected his cognitive functions. Four Lobes for
Cognitive Functions
Basically the cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes;
because during development of our brain the pressure divides the
area into four areas and the development of these lobes do
different functions within our brain. The four lobes are known as
frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe and the occipital lobe
(Pinel, 2009). One’s occipital lobe is what gives him or her visual
input and helps guide their behavior, the occipital cortex with
“large areas of an adjacent cortex perform this cognitive function”
(Pinel, 2009, p. 69).
In, the parietal lobe it has two large functional areas, the
post central gyrus function, which it analyzes sensations one can
feel from his or her body, such as touch. In the posterior section
of the parietal lobes has the role of “perceiving the location of
both objects and our own bodies and in directing our attention”
(Pinel, 2009, p. 69). The cortex of one’s temporal lobes, which has
three functional areas. For one’s language and hearing there is the
superior temporal gyrus, the inferior temporal cortex identifies
ones complex visual patterns, next is the medial ortian of the
temporal cortex its cognitive function is for memory. The last of
the four lobes is the frontal lobe, and it has two distinct
functioning areas. The first area is the pre-central gyrus along
with the adjacent frontal cortex have a motor function, and the
“frontal cortex anterior to motor cortex performs complex cognitive
functions” (Pinel, 2009, p. 69), such as assessing the outcomes of
possible patterns of behavior, preparation to reply with sequences,
and assessing the signifince of the behavior of others (Pinel,
2009).
Summary of what each lobe does •Occipital lobe for vision
processing •Parietal lobe for movement, perception to stimuli,
recognition, orientation. •Temporal lobe for perception and
recognition of auditory stimuli, speech, and memory. •Frontal is
for reasoning, parts of speech, movement, planning,
problem-solving, and emotions (Brain Structures and their
Functions, 2005) Phineas Gage (1823-1860)
Phineas Gage is a good example to use when explaining what
happens to a person who receives brain damage and how the damage
can affect ones cognitive functions. At the age of 25 a young man’s
life changed completely, Phineas Gage was a hard worker as well as
the a supervisor for the crew he worked with, his or her job was to
blast huge rocks to make the land ready for the railroad track in
1848. His job consist of using a tampering iron on the boulders
that had gun power or dynamite in them to explode, accidents do
happen, and Phineas Gage received a tampering iron exploded into
his face.
It was remarkable that he was alive as well as being able to
walk three miles to find medical help. The doctor cleaned him up
with amazement that he lived through this damage to his brain. From
the doctors report the tampering iron made entry in the cranium and
passed through the anterior left lobe, and made its exit in the
medial line, along his sinus fracturing his frontal and parietal
bones widely, substantial parts of the brain broken up and his left
eye globe was protruding out the socket, within a half of a
diameter (Mo, 2006).
After this terrible accident according to (Mo, 2006), Phineas
Gage retained full possession of his reason, but Gages wife,
family, and friends began to see dramatic changes happening to him
and his personality. Even the company he worked for tried to rehire
him, but they could not because his behavior changed, he was
mouthy, unpredictable, disrespectful, and grossest profanities.
These was not Phineas Gage’s behavior before the tampering iron
went through his brain and rearrange his cognitive function from
his anterior left lobe (Mo, 2006).
Which is located in the frontal lobe, and it is for
reasoning, parts of speech, movement, planning, problem-solving,
and emotions (Brain Structures and their Functions, 2005). This was
not the Phenias Gage they knew; in fact anyone that knew Gage
before states there is a drastic change to his mind. As a result of
Phineas damage from his frontal cortex there was a complete loss of
social inhibitions, and inappropriate behavior (Mo, 2006). To this
day “the role of the frontal cortex is involved in personality
changes and social cognition” (Mo, 2006, p. ) Phenias Gage lived a
different life as a stable person, at a place where he was not
known, presumably somewhere in Chile and live 13 more years. This
shows that when one’s brain has damage that they can live through
it, but as a different person. Ones cognitive functions can become
altered by brain damage within their lobes in their brain. Phineas
Gage he seemed to turn from a good natured person to a bad natured
person, does that mean a bad natured person can become altered to a
good natured person?
