美国国家公共电台 NPR Why Brain Scientists Are Still Obsessed With The Curious Case Of Phineas Gage

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

And now the story of a man with an injury that changed our understanding of the brain. The man was Phineas Gage¹, and he died 157 years ago today. Gage became famous for surviving an accident that drove an iron rod through his head. NPR's Jon Hamilton looks at why doctors and scientists continue to study this very odd case.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE²: Brain geeks like Jack³ Van Horn know an awful lot about Phineas Gage.

JACK VAN HORN: In 1848, Mr. Gage was a 25-year-old foreman on a railroad crew who were preparing the track bed for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad outside of the town of Cavendish, Vt.

HAMILTON: Van Horn is an associate professor of neurology at the University of Southern California. He says Gage was in charge of blowing up rocks. He would drill a hole, place an explosive charge then pack in sand using a 13-pound metal bar known as a tamping⁴ iron. Van Horn describes what happened next with help from Allan Ropper of Harvard and the University of Melbourne's Malcolm Macmillan

MALCOLM MACMILLAN: On September 13, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon...

ALLAN ROPPER: ...In the process of tamping down one of these charges, he caused a spark...

VAN HORN: ...Which drove this tamping iron up and out of the hole...

MACMILLAN: ...Under the cheekbone...

VAN HORN: ...Behind his eye socket⁵...

MACMILLAN: ...Through the inner part of the skull⁶...

VAN HORN: ...And out of the top of his head.

HAMILTON: Gage didn't die, but his personality changed. Macmillan says the doctor who treated Gage described his patient this way.

MACMILLAN: He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity which was not previously⁷ his custom.

HAMILTON: Macmillan says this dramatic transformation⁸, documented by a physician, is why Gage shows up in so many medical textbooks.

MACMILLAN: He was the first case where you could say fairly definitely that injury to the brain produced some kind of change in personality.

HAMILTON: That was a big deal. In the mid-1800s, phrenologists were still assessing people's personalities⁹ by measuring bumps on their skull. Harvard's Allan Ropper says Gage's case helped establish modern brain science.

ROPPER: If you talk about hardcore neurology and the relationship between structural¹⁰ damage to the brain and particular changes in behavior, this is ground zero 'cause it's one region, it's really obvious, and the changes in personality were stunning¹¹.

HAMILTON: And every generation of brain scientists seems compelled to revisit Gage's case. Since the 1940s, researchers have used sketches¹², CT scans and computer models to recreate his injury.

And in 2012, Jack Van Horn led a team that combined CT scans of Cage's skull with MRI scans of typical people to show how the wiring of Gage's brain had been affected¹³. Van Horn says it's not just researchers who keep coming back to Gage, neurosurgeons still sometimes use what they've learned from his case.

VAN HORN: Somebody has been shot in the head with an arrow or falls off a ladder and lands on a piece of rebar, so you do have these modern kind of Phineas Gage-like cases.

HAMILTON: But Malcolm Macmillan, who wrote a book about Gage, says there's something about the famous patient many people don't know.

MACMILLAN: The thing is that that personality change, which undoubtedly¹⁴ occurred, did not last much longer than about two to three years.

HAMILTON: Gage went on to work as a long-distance stagecoach¹⁵ driver in Chile. And Macmillan says this chapter of Gage's life offers a powerful message.

MACMILLAN: Even in cases of massive brain damage and massive incapacity, rehabilitation¹⁶ is always possible.

HAMILTON: Gage died in his mid-30s from a seizure¹⁷ that was probably caused by his injury. His skull and the tamping iron that passed through it are on display at the Warren Anatomical Museum in Boston. Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOSCIL'S "FIRST NARROWS")

1 gage   

n.标准尺寸，规格；量规，量表 [=gauge]

参考例句：

• Can you gage what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gage one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

4 tamping   

n.填塞物，捣紧v.捣固( tamp的现在分词 )；填充；（用炮泥）封炮眼口；夯实

参考例句：

• The foundation becomes solid after tamping. 打夯以后，地基就瓷实了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Practical construction shows that equal energy, equal deformation tamping a. 等能量、等变形夯扩挤密矸石桩是一种地基加固新技术。 来自互联网

5 socket   

n.窝，穴，孔，插座，插口

参考例句：

• He put the electric plug into the socket.他把电插头插入插座。
• The battery charger plugs into any mains socket.这个电池充电器可以插入任何类型的电源插座。

6 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

7 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

8 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

9 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

10 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

11 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

12 sketches   

n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概

参考例句：

• The artist is making sketches for his next painting. 画家正为他的下一幅作品画素描。
• You have to admit that these sketches are true to life. 你得承认这些素描很逼真。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

14 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

15 stagecoach   

n.公共马车

参考例句：

• She's getting off the stagecoach.她正在下马车。
• The stagecoach driver cracked the whip.驿站马车的车夫抽响了鞭子。

16 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

17 seizure   

n.没收；占有；抵押

参考例句：

• The seizure of contraband is made by customs.那些走私品是被海关没收的。
• The courts ordered the seizure of all her property.法院下令查封她所有的财产。