In 1848, Phineas Gage, a railroad construction foreman, survived when an explosion drove an iron rod through his head damaging the functioning of the frontal lobes. This instance provided evidence that the frontal lobe plays a role in personality and behavior. Researchers have continued to study Gage's brain to better understand this link. Which research method is being used?

Case study

Explanation:

Phineas Gage: a case study.

An error in the procedure caused that, when this worker tried to compact the powder placed in the cavity using a metal bar, a spark would jump. The explosion of the mixture occurred a few centimeters from the face of the young man and, as a result, the metal bar one meter long and about three centimeters in diameter pierced his skull before landing more than twenty meters from where he presumably.

When Gage returned to work in the work, the measured and cordial worker that everyone knew had disappeared to give way to a person with bad temper, easy to irritate, given to insults, prone to waste and with a very short-term vision of the lifetime. He was, in general, an impatient and irreverent person, who let himself be carried away by desires, fruit of a whim, and who thought little of others.

This little historical episode is a mandatory stop in many university careers related to neuroscience and behavior because, in fact, it was one of the first well-documented examples in which it was seen how material changes in the brain modified not only cognitive abilities, but aspects of psychology that have traditionally been associated with the "soul", that is, the way of being and the essence of human beings.

Somehow, the accident of the metal bar served to indicate the biological bases on which rather abstract psychological processes are sustained, such as the management of emotions and decision-making. In addition, the case of Phineas Gage also served to reinforce the hypothesis that different areas of the brain deal with different aspects of behavior.