The "New" Phineas
Before the accident, Phineas was a smart boss. After, he was "pigheaded" and this "S" word.
What is stubborn?
This lobe, located at the front of the brain, acts as the "Decision Maker" or "CEO."
What is the Frontal Lobe?
Today, doctors see patients who act just like Phineas because they had surgery to remove one of these from their brain
What is a tumor?
When shown a scary picture of a shark, a modern "Phineas" patient's skin stays like this.
What is flat / completely dry?
Walking, balancing, and talking are examples of this part of the brain system.
What is the Hardware?
Phineas kept moving from farm to farm because he would always get into one of these with his bosses.
What is a fight (or quarrel)?
Dr. Paul Broca discovered that damage to a specific spot on the left side of the brain ruins your ability to do this.
What is speak (or talk)?
In 1994, Dr. Hanna Damasio used a computer to build a 3D model of this physical part of Phineas.
What is his skull?
A healthy brain reacts to a beautiful or scary picture by producing this kind of "spark," making the skin sweaty.
What is an emotional spark?
Knowing how to act around a crying friend or when to laugh at a joke is an example of this part of the brain system.
What is the Software?
Because his frontal lobe was damaged, Phineas lost these types of skills, which help you act politely and follow rules.
What are social skills?
Dr. Carl Wernicke found a different spot in the brain that controls your ability to do this with speech.
What is understand it?
Modern doctors use these two types of "super-cameras" to slice the brain into pictures.
What are MRI and CT scans?
In the gambling game, a healthy brain quickly learns to stop picking from this type of card deck.
What is the risky deck?
True or False: Phineas's "Talking App" was completely destroyed by the iron rod.
What is False? (He could still talk perfectly!)
Dr. Harlow finally confessed that while Phineas's physical body healed perfectly, this part of him had completely changed.
What is his personality (or mind)?
The scientific idea that specific parts of the brain do specific jobs (like a speech center or an emotion center) is called this.
What is localization?
When examining the 3D computer model, doctors realized if the iron had hit these, Phineas would have bled out and died instantly.
What are blood vessels?
Even though modern patients know the math is bad in the risky decks, they pick them anyway because their "App" for making these is broken.
What are good decisions / choices?
The iron bar plowed right through the "Software" that helps humans do this with each other
What is get along / act politely?
Phineas's friends famously used this four-word phrase to describe him because he acted so differently.
What is "no longer Gage"?
Because the iron bar went in at a steep angle, it completely missed the parts of the brain that control these two important physical skills.
What are movement and speech (or memory)?
To someone with a damaged frontal lobe, this concept (like feeling happy or sad) is like a "foreign language" they can no longer speak.
What is emotion?
Amazingly, modern tumor patients and Phineas Gage can still easily solve these types of puzzles, even if they can't make good social choices.
What are math (or logic) puzzles?
Swallowing food is automatic "hardware," but eating politely with a fork in front of people is this type of "software" behavior.
What is a social behavior?