World News for Students of English

02-12-2025 15:00

Construction worker Phineas Gage survived a terrible accident in 1848 when an iron rod shot through his skull, destroying a large section of his right frontal lobe, the part of the brain associated with behavior and emotion.

Although he physically recovered, his personality drastically changed; the once reliable man became rude and capricious.

Friends famously claimed, ‘’Gage was no longer Gage.’’ However, his case provided the first insights into the brain’s flexibility, a concept now known as neuroplasticity. Gage later moved to Chile and worked as a stagecoach driver, a job that required significant cognitive effort, including memorization and steering multiple horses. This regular, repetitive activity served as self-directed neurorehabilitation. His recovery demonstrated that the adult brain is not fixed and can adapt by reallocating functions, a process called cortical remapping.

Gage’s survival and subsequent recovery changed the understanding of the brain, establishing him as a key figure in neuroscience and offering hope for recovery from brain injuries and mental health challenges today.

Difficult words: lobe (a rounded, often curved section that is part of a larger organ), stagecoach (a large, enclosed four-wheeled vehicle pulled by horses that was historically used to carry passengers and mail over long distances), subsequent (coming after something else in time or order).

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