• Question: What happens if your frontal lobes get damaged?

    Asked by lilsimmo to Damien, Rachael, Suzi, Tim on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi @lilsimmo
      Ooh, now I get to talk about my namesake, a man called Phineas Gage!
      He worked on the US Railroads, and his job was to use a big stick to push explosives in to the ground, ready to blow up. One day, this all went a bit wrong! The explosives, well…exploded, and pushed the rod he was using straight through his head!!!

      Amazingly he didn’t die, he even managed to walk to the cart to take him home (his bosses kindly gave him the rest of the day off!!!).

      Although he lived for a while after (nearly 12 years in fact), the rod had passed through his frontal lobes and damaged them extensively.

      His friends said he was ‘no longer Gage’. He didn’t work again, and his personality was vastly altered. He used to make up grand stories (called confabulation).

      This image shows where the rod passed through his head
      http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/05/phineas_gage_feral_child_unresponsive_bystanders.php

      The frontal lobes are involved in something called ‘executive function’ and it is thought that they are involved in your personality too. So damage can affect your ability to hold down a job or maintain your life in a sensible way, and it can also change who you are as a person.

      I hope this helps, let me know if you’d like more info!

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