Stories

On September 13, 1848, a three-foot-seven-inch iron rod weighing thirteen pounds shot through Phineas Gage’s skull at the speed of a cannonball. It entered below his left cheekbone, passed behind his left eye, tore through the front part of his brain, and exploded out through the top of his head, landing about 80 feet away, covered in blood and brain matter. Gage was packing explosives into a rock using a tamping iron when a spark ignited the powder charge prematurely. The rod became a projectile, and Gage became the most famous patient in the history of neuroscience. ...

In the late 1800s, in the remote logging camps of northern Maine, there was a group of French-Canadian lumberjacks who would obey any sudden command without conscious control. Startle them and shout “Jump!” and they’d jump. “Throw your axe!” and they’d hurl it, even if someone was in the way. “Hit yourself!” and they’d strike their own face. They had no choice. The response was involuntary, immediate, and uncontrollable. They couldn’t stop themselves, even when they knew the command was dangerous or humiliating. ...

A neurologist is examining a patient who suffered frontal lobe damage from a stroke. The doctor sets a pair of glasses on the table between them during the examination. The patient reaches out, picks up the glasses, and puts them on-over the pair of glasses he’s already wearing. The doctor, curious, places another pair of glasses on the table. The patient picks them up and puts them on. Now he’s wearing three pairs of glasses, stacked on top of each other. ...