The personality at present it is understood as the set of emotions, feelings and thoughts linked to behavior What does a person understand?.
This pattern persists over time, as personality is conceptualized as a stable variable of the person and in this way builds our identity.
To this is linked the moral conduct of each one, which includes that behavior that is responsible for well-regarded social acts, ethics and justifiably “doing good”. It brings together the set of norms, values and beliefs of the society in which the individual is found.
The moral conduct, It is regulated as we have said by the society in which we live, and for this reason it is very similar among the inhabitants of the same country with slight differences caused by the personality of each one.
In the same way, the morality of an eastern country will be different in some respects from that of a western country, due to its traditions and customs which decisively affect.
But what if this changed, and overnight the brain organ governing civilization and moral conduct were altered? What would happen if you suddenly woke up and all the good behavior that you had carried out during your life disappeared and you became an irritable and disregarded person??
Well, this is the case of Phineas Gage, who gave rise to the studies of moral behavior located in a certain brain area, and we explain it to you here.
In 1848, the doctrine of phrenology reigned, of which Gall was the main precursor..
Phrenology was the localization science that determined, according to the shape of the skull, head and features, personality and character traits.
It must be said that nowadays it is considered a theory without validity and pseudoscientific, but that nevertheless, it did contribute the following conclusion to science: "the brain is the organ of the mind".
19th century, the state of Vermont and a young man would be the components of the unpleasant story that later served as an object of study of the great organ of the body: the brain.
Gage was a 25-year-old man who worked as a foreman on the construction of the railroad that would go between Rutland and Burlington. They described it as a kind, caring, patient, respectful person and a good worker.
But his life and his person were altered when a terrible accident happened to him during his work, leaving serious consequences. There was Gage with his men clearing a path through rocky terrain to lay the railroad tracks..
What they had to do was not easy or short of danger, because they had to make a hole in the stone, fill it with gunpowder and plug it with a heavy iron bar.
The incident was that the contraption exploded prematurely and the bar was thrown upwards, in the direction of Gage's face. Note the fact that the bar was 105 cm long, 3 cm in diameter and weighed 7 kg.
The bar completely pierced Gage's skull, specifically the frontal-parietal area of the brain, below the left eye, and fell to the ground covered in blood. Gage also fell to the ground and was unconscious and shaking for a few minutes. After this, he woke up, was able to speak and return to his town to visit the doctor, although sitting down and with help, but no less surprising.
You were diagnosed with severe trauma, suffering from pictures of delusions and strong fever. But after rest and medication, he apparently recovers in body and mind. With the only supposed sequel of having lost his left eye.
The story does not end here, and it is that after two months you see very abrupt changes in your personality. Gage who returns to work, is not the same, argue his colleagues and his family.
Became a man whimsical and childish, irritable and sometimes hesitant, impatient and impulsive, it seemed that everything did not matter to him, and he acted with indifference regarding "what will they say".
With this change in behavior and attitude, his job did not last long and he ended up working for a circus as a fairground attraction due to his hole in his head. Gage died in 1861, twelve years after his spectacular accident, due to a severe seizure..
But then what happened to Phineas Gage to change so much after the accident if his entire body seemed to have been healed?
As a result of this fact, Gage's doctor and other health professionals began to study the case. Over the years, and with more similar cases, it is evident that the prefrontal cortex is in charge of moral faculties, ethics and social civilization, among other cognitive functions..
The prefrontal is located in the frontal region anterior to the primary and premotor motor cortex.
Has been developing phylogenetically in the human being with difference to the rest of animals, and that is why we are assumed as distinguished social beings and with reason.
Specific, the frontal lobe has been found to be responsible for anticipating and planning for the future, the temporal organization of behavior, the sense of responsibility towards oneself, the adaptation to the complex social environment, the inhibition of the most basic instincts, as well as the ethical judgment.
Also called "executive brain" for its implications in executive tasks such as: mental flexibility, problem solving, conceptualization, associative learning, metacognition, working memory ...
And is that, due to the large brain mass that the entire frontal lobe supposes with its due neuronal interconnection, the damage caused in this subcortical structure can lead to different cognitive, behavioral and emotional profiles depending on where the massive damage is, the type of injury and its depth.
The main clinical manifestations, among others, after frontal damage would be the following:
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