• Young railroad construction supervisor (1848)

• Accident propelled tamping rod through his skull at high speed

• Survived and recovered well

• Months later- startling changes in personality and mood

• Became extravagant, anti-social, foul mouthed, and a liar with bad manners

• “Gage was no longer Gage”• Died in 1861, penniless and epileptic• Part of brain he lost associated with

mental and emotional functions• Skull at Harvard medical museum

• Dr. Egas Moniz- Nobel prize in 1949 (first performed in 1936)

• Used to subdue aggressive behaviors (schizophrenia, mania)

• Doesn’t eliminate impulses just ability to act on them

• Used until about 1960

• Elderly music professor• Trouble recognizing

students• Couldn’t tell shoe from

foot• Pat parking meters as if

they were children• Tried to put wife’s head

on his (like a hat!)

• Describes random details of pictures, photos, people (could not see whole)

• Describe building on left side of park, unaware of right side (opposite when traveling opposite way)

• “verbal dreams”• Art moved from realism

to abstract

• Aphasia- inability to grasp words- focus on expression (cannot be lied to!)– Damage to left temporal region

• Total agnosia- expressive quality of voice disappears- focus on grammatical construction– Damage to right temporal region

• Laughter was due to President Reagan’s speech on TV

• Woman complained she couldn’t watch TV in her favorite chair

• Doctor assumed problem with vision

• Couldn’t sit there because dead Uncle William was there!

• Woman had Parkinson’s- medicine (L-dopa) was causing hallucinations

• 24 yr. old male- Tourette syndrome

• Almost incapacitated by tics (every few seconds)

• High intelligence, witty, strong character

• Fired from dozens of jobs• Marriage in trouble due to

obscenities at inappropriate times

• Excellent drummer (loved jazz)

• Terrific ping pong player• Free from tics only when

asleep, swimming, singing (rhythmic)

• Given haldol to control tics (extremely sensitive to medication)

• Came back with black eye and broken nose (caught in revolving door as he darted in and out)

• Haldol only slowed tics- almost Parkinsonium

• Lost identity without tics

• Three months of preparation- retry haldol

• Now tic free and productive but DULL (even dreams dull)

• Final solution- haldol during week/ no haldol (“let fly”) during weekend

• Young man, nice “normal”

• Fell out of bed- refused to get back in

• Awoke from nap to find “severed leg in bed with him”

• Attempted to throw it out and it became attached to him

• Proprioception deficit- no “body sense”- body cannot “see”

• 49 year old man • Vivid memory of

past up to 1945 (present was 1975)- thought he was 19 and war just ended

• No short term memory

• Korsakov’s syndrome- loss of mammillary bodies of brain due to alcoholism

• Natasha K. -89 years old

• Noticed “change”- more energetic, alive, frisky

• Had syphilis at 19 (in brothel)

• Neurosyphilis after 70 year interval

• Treated but brain effects permanent