A three-centimeter-diameter iron rod pierced his head.

Have you ever had such a time, when you have friends around you, but depression still inexplicably surges into your heart? Even though the years are peaceful, you still get angry and restless? You may have also seen various psychologists and taken a variety of psychiatric drugs. The human brain and thoughts are the most complex hardware and software on the earth. They cannot be changed by a few simple psychological massages. As the old Chinese saying goes: It is easy to change the country, but it is difficult to change one's nature!

Of course, this is just the traditional understanding of people. Very few people in history have really changed their personalities completely because of something. Among them, there is one person who not only changed himself, but also changed the research process of human brain science. He is Phineas Gage (1823-1860).

Phoenix Gage, why is he holding a stick? You'll find out later | Wikimedia Commons

Horrible explosion accident

Gage was originally a blasting foreman for the Great Western Railway Company of the United States. On September 13, 1848, exactly 173 years ago today, a group of workers were carrying out a boulder blasting task on the railway section of Rutland County. In the 19th century, trains were often disturbed by rocks rolling down from cliffs. At that time, there was no convenient large-scale lifting equipment, so the method of moving the boulders was usually to use gunpowder to break them up, and then the railway workers would clean up the small stones.

At about 4:30 p.m. on September 13, it was already dark, and Gage and his coworkers were thinking about where to go to relax after completing the remaining tasks. Everyone was chatting and laughing. Facing the last boulder, Gage used an iron rod to tamp the explosives in the hole while turning back to chat with his coworkers. When he was happiest, Gage even used his chin to support the iron rod. What he never expected was that the coworkers in the previous process forgot to cover the gunpowder with anti-blasting sand.

Map of the town of Cavendish, with two dots marked A in the lower right corner, indicating where the accident may have occurred | Wikimedia Commons

After several heavy blows of the gunpowder and the iron rod, something really terrible happened. With a loud bang, the sparks ignited the gunpowder under the iron rod, and the iron rod, which was 1.1 meters long, 3.2 centimeters in diameter, and weighed 6 kilograms, was instantly blown off from Gage's chin, directly piercing Gage's eyeball, and then pierced a large hole in the front of his head, and flew 25 meters before the remaining force dissipated!

Everyone believed that he must be dead, but unexpectedly, two minutes later, the extremely strong Gage regained consciousness. People rushed him to a nearby hospital. After repeated coma and awakening, Gage was surprisingly able to stand up again three weeks later! And with such a severe brain injury, he was able to communicate in a basic way, which was beyond everyone's expectations.

Drawing of a skull by Phoenix Gage | Wikimedia Commons

The nightmare has just begun

Fortunately, Gage recovered slowly and found a new job as a stagecoach driver in Chile. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, as if God was helping him. But this was only the opinion of outsiders. For Gage's family and friends, the real nightmare had just begun. After the accident, Gage completely became a different Gage. He was originally friendly and gentle, but he became more manic, unhappy, and irritable than ever before. It can be said that Gage is now like a completely disobedient child.

At the same time, Gage also had epileptic seizures from time to time. 12 years after the accident, Gage eventually died of severe epilepsy. Although Gage ended his unfortunate experience, the valuable materials he accumulated for neurology, brain science, psychiatry and other disciplines have been passed down to this day. For the first time, humans realized that the direct relationship between the brain and personality connects the human "body" and "soul". A key position in the brain is our frontal lobe, which is the position that caused Gage's personality to change drastically in the accident.

Reconstruction of Phoenix Gage's brain injury | M Thiebaut de Schotten et al. / Cereb Cortex (2015)

Through the study of the prefrontal lobe of the brain, human understanding of brain science has continued to deepen. A hundred years after Gage's accident, another major event occurred in the history of brain science. It was not as dramatic as Gage's experience, but its impact was more far-reaching and terrifying.

In 1949, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Walter Hess and Egas Moniz for their discovery of a brain surgery that had a very positive therapeutic effect on some mental illnesses, which was almost a milestone at the time. Some mentally ill patients had their personalities significantly calmer and more peaceful after the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts was severed. This surgery is called lobotomy.

Tools for drilling holes in the skull used in lobotomies | Bjoertvedt / Wikimedia Commons

However, family members and doctors later discovered that although the patients were no longer manic, they behaved as if they had lost their "souls". They acted like zombies, no longer interested in anything, and mothers who were full of maternal love for their children were also indifferent to their children. However, the popularity of white matter removal was unstoppable, and tens of thousands of people had this operation, many of whom were not patients with severe mental illness, or even just behaved inappropriately. Many people who had the operation are still alive today, almost becoming the darkest mark in the history of the Nobel Prize! This cruel "treatment method" appeared in the famous movies "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Shutter Island".

Science brings light

Although the Nobel Prize and the major mistakes of modern medicine have brought irreparable losses to mankind, it is undeniable that changes to the frontal lobe of the brain can indeed produce many physiological and even psychological changes. For example, in mouse experiments, by changing or removing part of the frontal lobe structure of the brain, aggressive mice can become very peaceful, and conservative and timid mice can become troublesome.

In recent human medical research, Helen Mayberg, a female neurologist who studies depression, found that depression is closely related to Brodmann Area 25 in the frontal cortex of the brain. This is a very small area, but it has a large number of neural connections with our prefrontal lobe. Brodmann Area 25 of patients with depression is usually smaller and often has abnormal activity.

Subsequent studies have made an amazing discovery. Simply inserting a tiny electrode into this Brodmann 25 area and stimulating the area with electric current to regulate its activity can significantly improve the mood of patients with depression! At present, this operation has been very perfected, and patients who have undergone this operation have not experienced any negative effects (except that it is a little more expensive). This technology can bring patients with depression who have suffered great pain and have suicidal thoughts back to normal life. It is better than building a seven-story pagoda!

At present, human beings’ understanding of their own brains can only be said to be in its infancy. But we can be sure that when the brain changes due to trauma, disease, or even just aging, our temperament will change accordingly. Our prefrontal cortex is the most typical example. If your family or friends suddenly change their personality one day, or even become unbearable, a practical suggestion is to go to the doctor for examination to find the internal pathological reasons. Instead of blindly blaming the other person for "becoming a different person", don't miss the critical opportunity to save lives!

Phoenix Gage memorial plaque | Daniel G. Axtell / Wikimedia Commons

Finally, we must also remember the unfortunate hero, Phoenix Gage, who opened our eyes to the science of the prefrontal lobe. His skull, along with the iron rod that pierced his brain, is now housed in the Warren Museum of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School, encouraging us to continue exploring the secrets of the brain!