English Unit: Brain science narrative Pineas Gage Flashcards
What is Phineas job?
“Phineas is the foreman of a track construction gang that is in the process of blasting a railroad right-of-way through granite bedrock” page 68, paragraph 1
What is the strict routine they follow?
Pour the powder, set the fuse, pour the sand, tamp the sand plug, Shout warning, light the fuse, and run like mad.” page 69 pgh 6
What goes wrong in the routine?
The sand is never poured down the hole; the black powder and fuse sit exposed at the bottom.” pg 71 pgh7
What is the good news and bad news of the open brain injury?
“Here phineas has a stroke of luck. His is an “open brain” injury. The hole on top of his head gives his battered brain swelling room. The bad news is that his brain is open to an infection.” pg 74 pgh 19
What can cross the blood brain barrier?
“There are many layers of tissue, bone, and skin to keep it protected from the outside, but there’s also a “blood-brain barrier” that keeps out many substances circulating in the blood. Oxygen and nutrients can cross the blood brain barrier but many dangerous substances like bacteria cannot.” pg 74 pgh 20
What did doctors call infection in 1848?
“Doctors in 1848 didn’t use the word infection, but they knew its symptoms well. They call it “sepsis,”’ pg 75 pgh 23
What is gangrene?
“The doctors of 1848 don’t realize that gangrene is the end result of bacterial infection.” pg 76 pgh 24
What evidence does this quote provide?
“Phineas is very weak, but he can walk short distances. He can count, feed and dress himself, and sing… The doctor offers Phineas $1,000 for the pocketful of pebbles that Phineas has collected walking along the Black River near town. Dr. Harlow knows that phineas can add and subtract, yet angrily refuses the deal.” pg 80 pgh 29
That his personality and/or rashionality/behavior has changed.
What do whole brainers believe?
They think of the cortex as a chamber holding a formless cloud or jelly driven by a mysterious “vital force.” Through this force, every part of the brain is connected to every other part.” pg 90 pgh 15
What do localizers believe?
“believe in a “localized function”; that is, they believe that the brian is divided into specific areas that control specific things.” pg 90 pgh 17
Which theory of the brain was right or wrong? (localizers or whole brainers)
“…both groups are slightly right but mostly wrong. Yet their wrong theories-and phineas himself-will steer our knowledge of the brain in the right direction.” pg 86 pgh 7
What does the brain stem, cerebellum, cerebral cortex do?
The brain stem keeps many of your automatic functions going, like your breathing and heartbeat…Without your cerebellum, you couldn’t walk upright, touch your finger to your nose, or turn this page. Without your brain stem, you couldn’t breathe. Without your cerebral cortex, you wouldn’t be human.” pg 87 pgh 10
What is the brains fundamental unit and what does it do?
“By just holding a brain in your hands you (…) can’t see the thing that makes this organ work, the brain’s fundamental unit, which is the brain cell, or neuron… —the cortex, cerebellum, brain stem, and spinal cord— are made up of neurons specialized to relay and transmit tiny electrical impulses. By layering and connecting billions of neurons, you get a brain.” pg 87 pgh 11
How did Phrenologists reason that you have a strong organ?
NOTE:THIS IS THE ORIGINAL THEORY THAT LOCALIZERS HAD
“Bumps on the head. The Phrenologists reason that if you have a strong organ, it will be big and project from your skull as a bump. If you have a weak organ, it will be small and you’ll have a dip in or depression in your skull” pg 92 pgh 19
What is epilepsy and a fit?
“A fit is an epileptic seizure. Epilepsy is not a disease but a complex of symptoms. Basically, a seizure is an electrical storm in your brain’s nerve cells.” pg 2 pgh 3
Did Phineas ever find a stable job after the accident?
“Phineas is “always finding something which did not suit him in every place he tried,” says his mother.” pg 97 pgh 2
What is the cause and effect of an epileptic seizure?
“But an epileptic seizure is only a symptom; the cause can be anything from a tumor, to an inherited genetic disposition to seizures, to blow to the head. In our time, we control most epileptic symptoms with powerful drugs called ”anticonvulsants,” because uncontrolled seizures can cause their own brain damage. In 1860, severe epileptic seizures are not controllable…Within hours, he has two more seizures… the intervals between seizures grow shorter and shorter”
pg 97-8 pgh 3-4
What is the “bloody humors” treatment?
“In 1860, the practice of bleeding a patient is the last gasp of a treatment back to the “bloody humors” theory of the ancient greeks. The doctor who treats Phineas decides he has too much blood and draws off the “extra.”” pg 98 pgh 5
What is the cause of Phineas’s death? When does he die?
“One after another, the seizures leave him weaker and weaker. They finally kill him on May 21, 1860, at his sister’s house in San Francisco.” pg 99 pgh 7
What is “Broca’s area”? What theory did it diminish?
“The spot becomes famous as “Broca’s area”… Underneath the skull is your “Broca’s area.” If it’s damaged, you will lose the ability to speak. In medical language, you will have “aphasia.”…Other brain researchers soon learn to use low voltage electricity to stimulate specific points on the brian. Bit by bit, the map of the brain grows more detailed and more localized.” pg 101 pgh 10
It diminished the theory that you needed bumps on the head or the shape of a skull to identify the parts of a brain.
What are the two halves of your brain? What do they do?
“ –the two halves of your brain that meet in your forehead–are the seat of ‘executive functions.” Those are your abilities to predict, to decide, and to interact socially.”
What happened to people who have damage to their frontal lobes?
“(People who have damage to their frontal lobes) Their emotional responses are unpredictable. They seem out of step emotionally with the rest of the world.” pg 108 pgh 4
What is Damasio’s experiment? What strategy do the modern day Phineas strategize?
“Another Damasio experiment involves a computer “gambling” game… The decks are rigged. Normal subjects who play the game soon figure out that the C and D decks are better risks than A or B. The modern day Phineases keep playing A and B, though they can explain to the experimenters mathematically exactly why C and D are better risks. They realize that the game is rigged to favor a “slow but steady” strategy against a “risk all” strategy, but they still play “risk all.” Call them Phineas’s rules.” pg 108 pgh 5
What parts of the brain do the iron damages?
“The iron damages the left hemisphere more than the right, the front of the frontal cortex more than the back, the underside more than the top” pg 110 pgh 12
what does the case of Phineas Gage suggest?
“The case of Phineas Gage suggests that we are human because our frontal lobes are set up so we can get along with other humans. We are “hard wired” to be sociable.” pg 110 pgh 13
How did Broca discover this part of the brain?
“Broca is still unable to to study a living brain, but he has been performing autopsies on the brains of stroke victims” pg 100 pgh 9
What is Wernicke’s area?
“A German named carl Wernicke identifies a second area on the left temporal lobe that separately controls the ability to understand speech.” pg 101 pgh 10
What does Wernicke and Broca’s area prove?
**“Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are the first anatomical proof of localization” pg 101 pgh 10
