The Accident
This object was the unlikely tool Phineas used to pack blasting powder before the explosion.
What is tamping iron?
This lobe of the brain, damaged in Phineas' accident, is responsible for decision-making and personality.
What is the frontal lobe?
Before the accident, Phineas was known for being hardworking and especially good at this leadership skill.
What is managing or supervising a work crew?
Scientists used Phineas' skull as this type of evidence to study the injury.
What is physical evidence (his skull)?
Phineas Gage became one of the most famous examples in this scientific field.
What is neuroscience?
This substance ignited, causing the tamping iron to shoot through Phineas' skull.
What is blasting powder/gunpowder?
Scientists used Phineas' case to better understand this field, which studies the brain and nervous system.
What is neuroscience?
After the accident, coworkers said Phineas struggled with this type of control.
What is controlling his emotions or impulses?
This type of scientific reasoning uses observations to form a possible explanation.
What is forming a hypothesis?
His case helped inspire future research into this type of brain-imaging technology.
What is MRI?
Phineas was working this type of construction project when the accident occured.
What is railroad construction?
The brain's ability to adapt or recognize after injury is known by this scientific term.
What is neuroplasticity?
Phineas' personality changes suggested that the brain influences this aspect of human behavior.
What is personality?
The tamping iron became an important piece of this kind of scientific documentation.
What is a case study artifact?
Phineas' story is often used to teach students about the connection between the brain and this part of human identity.
What is personality/identity?
The tamping iron entered through his cheek and exited through this part of his head.
What is the front/top of his skull?
Phineas' case helped scientists realize that different parts of the brain have these specialized roles.
What are specialized brain functions?
Phineas' friends said he could no longer stick to these long-term commitments.
What are long term plans or goals?
Early scientists compared Phineas' behavior before and after the accident to draw these scientific conclusions.
What are comparisons or observations?
Scientists still debate details of Phineas' recovery because of the challenge in studying historical medical cases.
What is the lack of complete historical research
This is the reason the explosion happened at the exact moment Phineas leaned over the blast hole.
What is the accidental spark created when the tamping iron struck the rock?
Before Phineas, many scientists believed the brain worked as one unified organ without these separate functional areas.
What are localized brain regions?
This is the reason many people who knew Phineas said he was "no longer Gage".
What is the dramatic change in his personality and behavior?
The book explains that scientists must rely on this type of evidenced rather than guesses or assumptions.
What is scientific evidence?
Phineas' accident ultimately helped shift science toward this modern idea that the brain and behavior are linked.
What is the idea that the brain and behavior are connected?