On September 13, 1848, Phineas Gage was overseeing the blasting for the creation of a new roadway. While drilling a new hole and then packing gunpowder with an iron rod for another controlled explosion, a spark from the iron against the rock ignited the gunpowder, shooting the iron out of the whole and through his skull. The iron entered under his cheek bone and exited through the top of this head. Astonishingly, Gage survived to live a long life. He was free of any expected side effects such as language or motor impairments, but his doctor began to notice a strange and unexpected symptom: his personality had changed.
The story of Phineas Gage is a famous and extraordinarily helpful example of what can happen to a person who experiences brain damage in the frontal lobe. His mental changes were downplayed by his first physician, Henry J. Bigelow, as his training focused solely on the physical health of a person. Since his body remained physically healthy and robust, as well as his speaking and reasoning abilities, Bigelow claimed that he had a full recovery. It was not until another doctor, John M. Harlow, took an interest in his case for him to be observed as having psychological changes. It was Harlow’s interest in phrenology, the study of personality through the skull’s bumps and dimples that has since been debunked, which allowed him to see the effects of Gage’s accident with a fresh perspective.
It was not just Harlow who observed changes in Gage. His friends and family reported changes as well. Before the accident, Gage was considered well-mannered, likeable, and responsible. After the accident, however, his personality flipped 180 degrees. He was crass, had an inability to follow through with plans, and a lack of personal restraint. He was described to have an animal-like temperament. These changes in personality cost him his job, his friends, and his family (Harlow, 1993).
Since then, many patients with brain injuries have been studied for personality changes (Barrash et al., 2011). These studies have also helped the scientific community discern which aspects of personality are associated with which brain areas (Bahia et al., 2013). Changes have also occurred in instances other than blunt force trauma, such as stroke or disease (Sollberger et al., 2011).
The cases of Phineas Gage and others raised the question of whether or not our personality is fixed. Since Gage, ways to measure personality have been developed. Along with these came the study of personality change in people without brain injury; natural personality change. A study by Jones and Mereditch (1996), found that across a lifespan of 30 to 40 years the personality naturally changes in areas of self-confidence, cognitive commitment, outgoingness, and dependability. A study by Acerbi, Enquist, and Ghirlanda (2009) found that some personality traits can be influenced by one’s cultural upbringing.
Research like this makes one think, what sort of person would I be if the circumstances of my life were a little different? How would I be if grown up in another country, or even just another part of my own country? What if my parents were different? Finally, can we blame other people for believing what they believe, knowing that they are mostly the production of their environment?
References
Acerbi, A., Enquist, M., & Ghirlanda, S. (2009). Cultural evolution and individual development of openness and conservatism. PNAS Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(45), 18931-18935. doi:10.1073/pnas.0908889106
Bahia, V., Takada, L., Caixeta, L., Lucato, L., Porto, C., & Nitrini, R. (2013). Prefrontal damage in childhood and changes in the development of personality: A case report. Dementia & Neuropsychologia, 7(1), 132-135.
Barrash, J., Asp, E., Markon, K., Manzel, K., Anderson, S. W., & Tranel, D. (2011). Dimensions of personality disturbance after focal brain damage: Investigation with the Iowa Scales of Personality Change. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology,33(8), 833-852. doi:10.1080/13803395.2011.561300
Harlow, J. M. (1993). Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head. History of Psychiatry, 4(14, Pt 2), 271-281. doi:10.1177/0957154X9300401406
Jones, C. J., & Meredith, W. (1996). Patterns of personality change across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 11(1), 57-65. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.11.1.57
Sollberger, M., Neuhaus, J., Ketelle, R., Stanley, C. M., Beckman, V., Growdon, M., & … Rankin, K. P. (2011). Interpersonal traits change as a function of disease type and severity in degenerative brain diseases. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 82(7), 732-739. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2010.205047
jazzjpsych.com 