Phineas Gage and the Role of the Brain in Cognitive Functioning

The day of Phineas accident, he was performing his work duties on the construction of a railroad track. His duty was to set explosive charges in holes drilled into large pieces of rock so that they could be broken up and removed. He had to fill the holes with gunpowder, with a fuse, and then pack in sand with a large tamping iron. Because gage was distracted on September 13, 1948, he forgot to fill in one of the holes with sand. In result, when he went to pack down the

Awareness about traumatic brain injury has increased because of combat operations in Irag and Afghanistan and in the National Football League. The debate over the nature of traumatic brain injury is an ongoing issue. Some think of categorizing from mild to the server is the condition of TBI that can lead to a person bring over diagnosed or misdiagnosed. The other side points out that the focus should not be on diagnosis put on the recovery and treatment of the symptoms.

Attention for traumatic brain injury has grown over the years and programs have been created to help try and prevent the injuries. As this is an injury to the brain the literature is vast with insight into what part of the brain injured resulted in what change in the individual. Children and athletics have been the main focus in recent years for studies as research have shown that undiagnosed injuries can have long lasting effects.

Research shows that half of the admitted patients in emergency centers experience complications several months, even years, after the initial injury (“Psychological Sequelae: Postconcussion, Frontal and Temporal Lobe Syndromes”. 2012.). In some cases, patients complain of periodic headaches for up to a year, depression, and comprehension issues. Rather than allowing for athletes to return to physical activity after two to three weeks, they need in-depth evaluations of their brains and tests ran to ensure their brain is functioning

Dalton Gaddy Mrs. Penny Hartley ENG112394D2 8 March 2016 Annotated Bibliography "Brain Injuries Cause for Concern in Baseball Too. " Tell Me More. 18 Dec. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.

Imagine a situation where your entire personality is changed forever by an object that pierces an area of your brain. Those who have had a frontal lobotomy, whether purposefully or not, have had their personality changed permanently. An unlucky foreman of the Rutland Railroad, Phineas Gage, was on the receiving end of a tragic occurrence that severed the frontal lobe area of his prefrontal cortex. He underwent the experience of having a railroad spike pierce him beneath his left cheek and exit through his skull, consequently injuring an important area of his brain. This occurrence changed one part of Gage’s personality completely, though he seemed almost entirely functional after his accident. The one thing that changed in Gage was his ability to imagine the future. He lived completely present in the moment. The unique accident that affected Phineas Gage can be broken down with various different philosophical approaches to answer what is called the “mind-body problem”. The mind-body problem is composed of attempting to explain things like beliefs, consciousness, emotions, etc., in organisms. Physicalism, dualism, and functionalism all have their unique explanation for the mind-body problem’s implication of Phineas Gage’s accident.

Concussions are becoming less of an issue due to better procedures and management. Many kids who are into contact sports will receive a concussion at some point in their career. This became a serious issue around the early 1990s and is now one of the most serious issues in today 's sports. The main concern is trying to know when kids are ready to get back onto the field. Coaches, doctors, and parents are getting worried about the safety of their kids and are skeptical about letting them continue in sports. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in children around the world and accounts for approximately half of all trauma deaths (Di et al. 2). Only about ninety-percent of traumatic brain injuries are considered mild injuries, but the effects from them are still severe. Traumatic brain injuries are any type of head injury such as concussions or even contusions. Most kids and their parents do not know the basic facts about traumatic brain injuries which is hurting them in the long run. However, doctors are aiming to improve diagnosis, treatments, outcomes in the long run, and trying to get adult familiar with the process so they can help their children as well.

In recent stories local retired NFL player Junior Seau suffered many head injuries while playing in the NFL. Well known and loved in all surrounding San Diego communities had committed suicide in 2012. Coming upon the 2 year anniversary of his passing people still wonder what exactly did it to him. The problems of head injuries in the NFL is they are always occurring. In 2010 over 154 head injuries happened in practices and or games, but in 2007 the NFL had released a pamphlet to the players about head injuries. since then the NFL has taken many different safety precautions to fix the recurring problem. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy also known as CTE had been discovered in a deceased

This paper examines the topic of concussions including the definition, classifications, treatment, and cases involving concussions in the media. Articles published online using the internet as well as online articles originally published in print will be examined in order to inform the reader of this paper how concussions are identified, how they are treated and how they are portrayed by doctors, media, and those suffering the injuries. Some of the literature in utilized in this report are strictly statistics. Others are information sources for the topic. The sources are analyzed thoroughly to give the relationship between concussions and physical activity.

Most people can agree that sports are deeply imbedded in America’s culture. But through the years, more concern is being raised about a specific injury that is becoming more common while playing a sport- traumatic brain injury (TBI). A traumatic brain injury arises from an external force, causing damage to brain tissue. Brain trauma from youth football and the levels beyond can have devastating long-term effects.

They are: cerebral neurasthenia, chronic traumatic brain injury, chronic brain injury, compensation hysteria, concussion neurosis, delayed traumatic apoplexy, dementia traumatic, encephalopathy traumatica, litigation neurosis, postconcussion neurosis, post concussion syndrome, post-traumatic concussion state, post-traumatic head syndrome, post-traumatic psychoneurosis, terror neurosis, traumatic constitution, traumatic encephalitis, traumatic encephalopathy, traumatic encephalopathy of boxers, traumatic hysterias, traumatic insanity, traumatic neurosis, traumatic psychosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. (2) Dr. James Noble, a Columbia University neurologist who was invited to write an editorial to accompany the article, said he hopes this case will bring attention to amateur athletes who may be at risk for CTE even if they don’t play professionally. But Eric Nauman, a professor at Purdue a member of the Purdue Neurotrauma Group, said while the case provides more evidence of the danger of repeated impact to the head. Researchers should also be looking for cases of CTE in individuals without obvious symptoms, Nauman said. Toward the end of his time on the field, he felt his brain slowing down and knew something was wrong. He saw himself in the stories of former NFL

Jim’s first brush with death is when a bomb is dropped near him and his comrade, Eric Sawney. His mouth was open, and both his legs were off, one just above the knee, the other not far above the foot, which was lying on its own a little to the left. A pale fellow at any time, Eric was now the colour of butcher’s paper, and the screams Jim could hear were coming from the hole of his mouth. (p.85)

The “Missfortune” of Phineas Gage “In a moment, Phineas will have a horrible accident”(Fleischman 2). These words are taken from the book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, and the accident they speak of will change the world as we know it. At the time of the accident a man named Phineas Gage was lying explosives to clear the way for the railroad. He was regarded as one of the best foremen by his employers, but that is to be no more. In a fraction of a second, a three foot rod that weighs thirteen and a half pounds blasts clean through his head.

When Adams was only four, an aftershock of a great earthquake of 1906, threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose, distinctly marking him for life. Due to a different

The story all begins in Cavendish, Vermont where Phineas worked on the railroad. His job was to blow up parts of mountains or pieces of stone by drilling a hole, put gun powder in the hole with a stick of dynamite and then ramming all of that as far as you can in the hole with a three-foot rod. On the date of September 13, 1848 Phineas life would change forever. The same as every day he was working on the same stuff as always and while he was he was ramming the rod down the hole the rod and the stone made a spark that set off the dynamite and shot out of the hole, shot through his head and landed sixty too seventy feet away. Pretty crazy, already right? After the rod went through his head he fell to the ground and started to shake rapidly. When he finally woke up he got up and walked to find help. He eventually found