Overview

In 1848 a railway construction worker named Phineas Gage suffered an accident that made him a major curiosity of medicine and a significant figure in psychology and neuroscience: an explosion caused a tamping iron to be blown competely through his head, destroying the left frontal lobe of his brain. Gage survived the accident and remained in reasonable physical health for another 11 years. But his behaviour changed markedly after the injury, and his case is considered to be the first to reveal the relation betwen the brain and complex personality characteristics. Yet almost nothing is known about him, and most of what is written is seriously in error.

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