Neuroscience
A pair of photograph collectors in Maryland, USA, have uncovered what they believe to be the first and only ever photographic record of Phineas Gage - the railway worker who survived an iron tamping rod passing straight through the front of his brain, following an explosives accident in 1848.
The story of Gage and the effects of his injury on his behaviour and personality have become one of the most famous case studies in the history of psychology, inspiring plays, books and songs.
Jack and Beverly Wilgus have had the photograph - known as a daguerreotype after the Parisian photographic pioneer Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre - in their possession for over thirty years, but have only just confirmed its identity.
The photograph shows Gage as a scarred, handsome, proud man, smartly dressed, with one eye closed, wielding the tamping iron that made him famous. Jack and Beverly Wilgus originally thought the image was of a whaler, but after posting the picture on Flick-r, they soon learned from expert whaling commenters that this was not the case (it was not a harpoon that he was holding), and they followed up on an alternative suggestion that perhaps the image was of Gage.
By carefully comparing the photograph with a life mask taken of Gage's head when he was alive, and the actual tamping iron, both of which are at the Warren Anatomical Museum, the Wilgus's confirmed that the photo is indeed of Gage. For example, an inscription on the real-life tamping iron is visible in the photograph, and scars visible on Gage's life mask perfectly match up with the scars shown in the photograph.
The new photo is bound to intensify the debate over the effects of Gage's injuries on his personality and behaviour. "One theory about Gage — that his personality might have changed because his appearance was made grotesque by the accident (e.g., Kotowicz, 2007) — no longer seems credible to us," the Wilgus's said.
The article is not yet publicly available but is due for imminent publication at the Journal of the History of Neurosciences. You can see the photo and read more about Gage here.
[Image credit: Photograph by Jack Wilgus of a daguerreotype of Phineas Gage in the collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus.]
_________________________________
JACK WILGUS, & BEVERLY WILGUS (2009). Face to Face with Phineas Gage. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (In Press).
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
First ever photo of Phineas Gage is discovered
A pair of photograph collectors in Maryland, USA, have uncovered what they believe to be the first and only ever photographic record of Phineas Gage - the railway worker who survived an iron tamping rod passing straight through the front of his brain, following an explosives accident in 1848.The story of Gage and the effects of his injury on his behaviour and personality have become one of the most famous case studies in the history of psychology, inspiring plays, books and songs.
Jack and Beverly Wilgus have had the photograph - known as a daguerreotype after the Parisian photographic pioneer Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre - in their possession for over thirty years, but have only just confirmed its identity.
The photograph shows Gage as a scarred, handsome, proud man, smartly dressed, with one eye closed, wielding the tamping iron that made him famous. Jack and Beverly Wilgus originally thought the image was of a whaler, but after posting the picture on Flick-r, they soon learned from expert whaling commenters that this was not the case (it was not a harpoon that he was holding), and they followed up on an alternative suggestion that perhaps the image was of Gage.
By carefully comparing the photograph with a life mask taken of Gage's head when he was alive, and the actual tamping iron, both of which are at the Warren Anatomical Museum, the Wilgus's confirmed that the photo is indeed of Gage. For example, an inscription on the real-life tamping iron is visible in the photograph, and scars visible on Gage's life mask perfectly match up with the scars shown in the photograph.
The new photo is bound to intensify the debate over the effects of Gage's injuries on his personality and behaviour. "One theory about Gage — that his personality might have changed because his appearance was made grotesque by the accident (e.g., Kotowicz, 2007) — no longer seems credible to us," the Wilgus's said.
The article is not yet publicly available but is due for imminent publication at the Journal of the History of Neurosciences. You can see the photo and read more about Gage here.
[Image credit: Photograph by Jack Wilgus of a daguerreotype of Phineas Gage in the collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus.]
_________________________________
JACK WILGUS, & BEVERLY WILGUS (2009). Face to Face with Phineas Gage. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (In Press).Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Glimpsed At Last - The Life Of Neuropsychology's Most Important Patient
Leborgne's brainMonsieur Leborgne, nicknamed Tan Tan, for that was the only syllable he could utter (save for a swear word or two), died in the care of the neurologist Paul Broca in Paris on April 17, 1861. Arguably the most important case in the...
- Neuroscience Still Haunted By Phineas Gage
From Van Horn et al 2012Seven years after his death, Phineas Gage's body was dug out of the ground and his skull passed to a doctor, John Harlow, who'd treated him in life. Although Gage's brain had long-since decayed, his skull remained intact...
- Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Phineas Gage, Kitty Genovese, Little Albert, And Other Classic Psychological Tales
The latest issue of The Psychologist magazine has just been published online and it features two open-access articles (here and here) that together drag psychology's classic tales out from the back of the cupboard, dust them down and cast them in...
- There Will Always Be Phineas
One of neuropsychology's and behavioral neuroscience's favorite historical case studies, Phineas Gage, is featured in this week's (02 December 2004) New England Journal of Medicine's "Images in Clinical Medicine" section, with two free-access...
- More About The Accidental Mind
Emily points me to a recent Boing Boing post on free neural notecards from David Linden's Accidental Mind blog (Linden is the author of the Accidental Mind, blogged here back in April). If you like brain science, you'll love these images! My favorite...