This article is about the survivor of an iron bar through the head. For the UK musical band, see Phinius Gage.
Phineas P. Gage
Gage and his "constant companion"—his inscribed tamping iron—sometime after 1849, seen in the portrait (identified in 2009)[note 1] that "exploded the common image of Gage as a dirty, disheveled misfit" [K]
Born
July 9, 1823 (date uncertain)
Grafton County, New Hampshire,[note 2] U.S.
Died
May 21, 1860(1860-05-21) (aged 36)
San Francisco Bay Area, California, U.S.
Cause of death
Status epilepticus
Burial place
Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, California (skull in Warren Anatomical Museum, Boston)
Occupations
Railroad construction foreman
blaster
stagecoach driver
Known for
Personality change after brain injury
Spouse
None
Children
None[M]: 39,319,327 [1]
Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable[B1]: 19 survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining 12 years of his life—effects sufficiently profound that friends saw him (for a time at least) as "no longer Gage".
The iron's path, per Harlow[H]: 21
Long known as the "American Crowbar Case"—once termed "the case which more than all others is calculated to excite our wonder, impair the value of prognosis, and even to subvert our physiological doctrines" [2]—Phineas Gage influenced 19th-century discussion about the mind and brain, particularly debate on cerebral localization,[M]: ch7-9 [B] and was perhaps the first case to suggest the brain's role in determining personality, and that damage to specific parts of the brain might induce specific mental changes.
Gage is a fixture in the curricula of neurology, psychology, and neuroscience,[3][M7]: 149 one of "the great medical curiosities of all time"[M8] and "a living part of the medical folklore" [R]: 637 frequently mentioned in books and scientific papers;[M]: ch14 he even has a minor place in popular culture.[4] Despite this celebrity, the body of established fact about Gage and what he was like (whether before or after his injury) is small,[note 3] which has allowed "the fitting of almost any theory [desired] to the small number of facts we have" [M]: 290 —Gage acting as a "Rorschach inkblot" [5] in which proponents of various conflicting theories of the brain all saw support for their views. Historically, published accounts of Gage (including scientific ones) have almost always severely exaggerated and distorted his behavioral changes, frequently contradicting the known facts.
A report of Gage's physical and mental condition shortly before his death implies that his most serious mental changes were temporary, so that in later life he was far more functional, and socially far better adapted, than in the years immediately following his accident. A social recovery hypothesis suggests that his work as a stagecoach driver in Chile fostered this recovery by providing daily structure that allowed him to regain lost social and personal skills.
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^Macmillan (2000), ch. 13; Macmillan (2008), p. 830.
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Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable[B1]: 19 survival of an accident in which a large...
said that when an iron rod was accidentally driven through the head of PhineasGage in 1848, this constituted an "accidental lobotomy", or that this event...
remembered for his attendance on brain-injury survivor PhineasGage, and for his published reports on Gage's accident and subsequent history. Harlow was born...
of the tenth season. The storyline was inspired by the true story of PhineasGage, a 19th-century medical case. In 1985, at his home in Pulaski, Virginia...
transcriptomic signatures. Fred Gage has been said to be a descendant of (or more specifically, the great-grandson of) PhineasGage, through whose brain an iron...
An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of PhineasGage. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-13363-0. Macmillan, M. (2008). "PhineasGage – Unravelling the myth". The Psychologist...
achieve the status of a "classic" case study in the literature, as did PhineasGage, the first known person to exhibit a definitive personality change as...
S2CID 45097428. "The PhineasGage story: Surgery". "Cyber Museum of Neurosurgery". See Macmillan (2008), Macmillan (2002), and PhineasGage#Theoretical use...
be attributed to the case of PhineasGage and the famous case studies by Paul Broca. The first case study on PhineasGage's head injury is one of the most...
be attributed to the case of PhineasGage and the famous case studies by Paul Broca. The first case study on PhineasGage's head injury is one of the most...
controlled by parts of the brain that are damaged. A famous example is PhineasGage, whose personality appears to have changed (though not as dramatically...
to the Massachusetts General Hospital since 1948), and the skull of PhineasGage, who survived a large iron bar being driven through his brain. The museum's...
1992 Harold McCluskey — survived massive exposure to americium in 1976 PhineasGage — survived piercing through of the skull by an iron rod in 1848 List...
injury was that of PhineasGage, a railroad worker whose left frontal lobe was damaged by a large iron rod in 1848 (though Gage's subsequent personality...
pop-punk band from Chicago, Illinois. The four-piece formed in 1994 as PhineasGage when the original band members were still in high school. In 1998, Allister...
and dysarthria. PhineasGage, who sustained a severe frontal lobe injury in 1848, has been called a case of dysexecutive syndrome. Gage's psychological...
and autism. Lesions to the prefrontal cortex, such as in the case of PhineasGage, may also result in deficits of executive function. Damage to these areas...
the mind in potent and intimate ways. In the 19th century, the case of PhineasGage, a railway worker who was injured by a stout iron rod passing through...
injury is PhineasGage, whose prefrontal cortex was severely damaged during a work accident when an iron rod pierced through his skull and brain. Gage survived...
characteristic of damage to the frontal lobe and was exemplified in the case of PhineasGage. The frontal lobe is the same part of the brain that is responsible for...
possibilities of ether to the attention of medical men, and rescuing the case of PhineasGage from relative obscurity. He was a vocal opponent of vivisection, and...
and uncertain situations. Patients with frontal lobe damage, such as PhineasGage, provided the first evidence that the frontal lobes were associated with...
control behavior. This is best exemplified through the case study of PhineasGage. The term "psychobiology" has been used in a variety of contexts, emphasizing...
patient PhineasGage, to estimate damage to his neural network (as well as the damage at the cortical level—the primary focus of earlier studies on Gage). Connectograms...
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