Phineas Gage was truly a man with a hole in his head. Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously, he survived to live another eleven years and become a textbook case in brain science. At the time, Phineas Gage seemed to completely recover from his accident. He could walk, talk, work, and travel, but he was changed. Gage "was no longer Gage," said his Vermont doctor, meaning that the old Phineas was dependable and well liked, and the new Phineas was crude and unpredictable. His case astonished doctors in his day and still fascinates doctors today. What happened and what didn't happen inside the brain of Phineas Gage will tell you a lot about how your brain works and how you act human.

The true story of the first case to reveal the relation between the brain and complex personality characteristics.

Publisher Description

Organizational communication is at a crossroads and professional communicators and leaders alike need to up their game. In this insightful and practical guide, leadership psychologist Dr. Laura McHale shows how neuroscience can help, surveying the field to reveal the science that is most applicable to organizations and providing an evidence-based approach to dramatically boost the effectiveness and impact of communications. From structural dynamics to occupational aprosodia, from the threat (and opportunities) of GPT-3 to the neuroscience of Zoom fatigue, she takes the reader on a fascinating journey of how neuroscience can help unlock the potential of communicators and the organizations they work for.

Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.

The importance of detailed examination and theoretical interpretation of the single case has been increasingly recognized in neuropsychology. This book brings together in one volume discussion of the classic cases which have shaped the way we think about the relationships between brain, behaviour and cognition. The single cases covered may be ancient or modern, famous or less well-known. But the book is comprehensive in its coverage of contemporary neuropsychological issues. Represented are classic cases in language, memory, perception, attention and praxis. Some of the cases included are rare, or have acted as catalysts to the development of theory. Some have remained the definitive case; many were the first of their type to be described and gave rise to the development of new syndrome entities. Some are still controversial. In some instances, the cases resulted in major paradigm shifts. Some, while still highly influential, were misinterpreted. But most of them were read only by a few in their original form. Each chapter highlights the relevance of the case for the development of neuropsychology, describes the particular features of the case that are interesting and discusses the theoretical implications.