Case Studies Flashcards
Gage
-Phineas Gage worked on a railway to clear rocks using a metal rod and dynamite
- On September 13th 1848 the iron rod went under his left eye and out of the top of his head
-This is a frontal brain injury
- This damage affected his behaviour and personality.
-He became unreliable, partial to swearing and making rude remarks
-Due to scar tissue from his brain injury he developed epilepsy
-Died in 1860
HM
-Henry Molaison had a childhood accident which led to severe epilepsy
-When he was in his 20s he was having 10 fits a day
-In order to put a stop to the fits half of the hippocampus region would be removed
-However, he took a risk and allowed the surgeon to remove his whole hippocampus
-After the surgery he could no longer make new memories
-The hippocampus has a major role in making memories so without it he was stuck with his old memories up until he died aged 82
Broca’s area
-Paul Broca, a French Neurologist had a patient called Leborgne
-His only utternace/speech was the word ‘tan’
-He could understand spoken and written language and would only communicate through gestures
-After his death in 1861, Borca performed an autopsy of patient ‘Tan’ as well as 8 other patients with a similar condition
-Broca found that they all had damage in the same region of the left frontal lobe
-This region is known as Broca’s area and people who have this are known to have Broca’s aphasia
