Phineas Gage Prior to the Nineteenth Century,

Phineas Gage

Prior to the nineteenth century, the role of the brain in cognitive function was sorely misunderstood. As Shreeve (n.d) points out, the ancient Egyptians believed the seat of consciousness to be the organ of the heart and views of gray matter changed little in the ensuing millennia. It was not until the nineteenth century that evidence surfaced related to the preeminence of the brain in human cognitive affairs.

The first movement acknowledging the importance of the brain was ironically un-scientific. Phrenology did posit that the brain was a powerful organ capable of controlling human thought, emotion, and behavior. However, the rigid mapping of the brain that defines phrenology proved utterly ridiculous over time. It would take a series of remarkable patients for emerging brain scientists to uncover the mysteries of cognition -- and the interface between brain, mind, and body.

While Phineas Gage is one of the most famous neuroscience patients, he was not the only nineteenth century boon to the study of the brain. In fact, several brain regions have been named after the nineteenth-century scientists who discovered them and their role in cognition. Broca's area of the brain is practically a household word. The region that is connected with speech production, Broca's area of the brain is named after the French anatomist who offered compelling evidence for the localization of this specific cognitive function. In fact, Paul Broca was one of the first scientists to offer definitive evidence that -- while there is no single seat of thought -- specific cognitive traits and functions are processed in localized regions of the brain," (Shreeve n.d.). Broca's research represented a breakthrough in brain research as well as a significant step forward from the appealing but misguided study of phrenology.

Broca's discovery kick started a series of similar findings. Just a few years after Broca made his discovery, a German neurologist named Carl Wernicke "identified a second language center farther back, in the brain's left temporal lobe," (Shreeve n.d.). Wernicke's region is nearly synonymous with stroke patients who can "talk freely, but & #8230;cannot comprehend language," (Shreeve n.d.). Thus, specific regions of the brain are indeed linked with specific cognitive functions like language and the processing of mathematical equations.

Phineas Gage is "probably the most famous person to have survived severe damage to the brain. He is also the first patient from whom we learned something about the relation between personality and the function of the front parts of the brain," ("Phineas Gage's Story" n.d.). Gage had been injured in a gruesome workplace accident in which a three and half-foot tampering iron weighing more than thirteen pounds went through his head. Remarkably, Gage survived and even remained conscious after the initial injury but his personality and his brain functioning was permanently altered. Gage saw a doctor, John Martyn Harlow, who analyzed the changes evident in Gage's behavior and communication patterns. As Twomey (2010) notes, Gage demonstrated a "complete personality change…he could not stick to plans, uttered 'the grossest profanity' and showed 'little deference for his fellows,' according to contemporary observations of the patient (Twomey).

A century before the advent of brain imaging technology, scientists, researchers, and doctors were discovering patterns and connections between the human brain and cognition. Gage and other brain-damaged patients formed the basis for the research. "Until recently, damaged brains were the best source of information about the origins of normal cognitive function," (Twomey 2010). However, current neuroscientific research does not depend on injured brains. Cognitive science has at its disposal a wealth of tools and technology with which to visualize and conceptualize the brain. Both brain structure and brain chemistry are now within the provisions of neuroscience, unlike in the days of Phineas Gage.

Jeanty (2011) points out that in general, cognitive functions fall within the realm of the cerebrum or cerebral cortex. However, the cerebrum is itself divided into four quadrants or lobes: the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe. Far from acting independently of one another, though, cognitive processes occur in multiple parts of the brain simultaneously (Shreeve n.d.). What Phineas Gage and other brain-damaged patients have shown is that certain brain structures are implicated in certain cognitive tasks.