Phinehas Gauge is widely known because of the fact that he survived a traumatic brain injury. He was working as a railway foreman when he encountered the accident. At the time of the accident, his work involved clearing rocks in order to level the ground in preparation for railway construction ( Tranel, 2010) . He would burry an explosive charge after which he would cover it with gunpowder after which a fuse was set. Sand was then use to prevent contact. He would then use a tamping rod to pack the explosives inside the rocks. On the fateful day, he packed the explosives without using sand which led to direct contact between the rod and the explosive materials. The rock hit a rock and immediately ignited the gut powder. The rod which measured about 1m in length and about 3.2cm in diameter shot right though his skull passing beneath the left cheek bone existing through the top of the skull and fell about 25 meters away from him ( Tranel, 2010) . He was immediately rushed to hospital and he survived the accident. Surprisingly, he did not sustain any loss of speech nor did he show any loss of motor function and he managed to return to work months after recovery. His memory also remained intact. However, after returning to work, some apparent changes in his personality were observed which made his colleagues to conclude that he was no longer the person they knew. He was now a very rude person, very irresponsible and he was restless most of the times. He later left the work and moved to California to live with his mother. He died 12 years after the accident of epileptic seizures.
Anatomy of the Brain
The case of Phinehas Gauge contributed a lot to the understanding of how the brain functions. At that time, the scientists did not know that the brain was responsible for controlling emotions and behavior. Also, it was not clear to the scientists that the brain was divided into regions. Further analysis of his accident revealed that it damaged both hemispheres of the frontal lobe of the brain that is responsible for social behavior and personality.
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Modern research of the brain has revealed that is divided into four lobes; the frontal lobe, the parietal lobes, temporal lobe and the occipital lobe. The lobes are divided by the sulci the gyri which are irregular contours running on the surface of the brain Carter, 2019) . The brain is further divided into the right and the left hemispheres. The importance of these divisions is that every part of the brain is responsible for controlling a specific function of the body. Interestingly, the left hemisphere controls the activities of the right hemisphere while the right hemisphere controls the activities of the left hemisphere. This arises due the fact that there is decussation of fibres at the level of the brainstem such that fibres from the left side of the brain cross to the right side of the brain and vice versa ( Drake et al, 2019) . Therefore, motor deficiencies from the right side of the brain will manifest on the left side of the brain and vice versa. The grey matter of the brain is responsible for motor functions while the matter is the collection of nerves that run to and from the grey matter.
As earlier stated, the different parts of the brain have different roles to play. The parietal lobe is responsible for written and verbal language. It is also responsible for processing information regarding sensations such as touch, pain and pressure. The frontal lobe on the other hand is responsible for emotions, personality and behavior, memory, judgment among other functions. The occipital lobe on the other hand is concerned with vision. The temporal lobe is responsible for decoding auditory information and memory.
The frontal lobe which was damaged in the accident involving Phinehas Gauge is involved in control of emotions and our personality. Other functions include memory, language, problem solving, judgment, sexual behavior and social behavior. Luckily for Phinehas Gage, the metal rod only affected areas of the frontal lobe involved with personality and spared the other sections hence he was able to lead a near normal life except the changes in personality ( Van Horn et al 2012) .
Application to psychology
In the field of psychology, the case of Phinehas Gage is very relevant. This is because in the clinical setting, we get to see some patients presenting with some abnormal behaviors. The frontal lobe especially is very vulnerable to injury because of its position. It is therefore the most affected part of the brain in most road accidents. Patients with injury to the frontal lobe might present in various forms depending on the part of the brain that is affected. A person whose injury has affected the part of the frontal lobe concerned with motor functions will present with motor deficiencies. A person whose injury has affected part of the brain that is responsible for emotions will present with emotional instability whereas a person whose injury affects the part that is concerned with social skills will present with inability to socialize. Understanding this information is very important in the clinical setting because it will help the psychologists to take a detailed history to understand the cause of the patient’s pathology which will ultimately lead to better management.
References
Carter, R. (2019). The human brain book: An illustrated guide to its structure, function, and disorders . Penguin.
Drake, R., Vogl, A. W., & Mitchell, A. W. (2019). Gray's anatomy for students E-book . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Tranel, D., & Cordry, D. (2010). Phineas gage. The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology . doi:10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0678
Van Horn, J. D., Irimia, A., Torgerson, C. M., Chambers, M. C., Kikinis, R., & Toga, A. W. (2012). Mapping connectivity damage in the case of Phineas gage. PLoS ONE , 7 (5), e37454. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037454
