| Unit 4. | Neurons, Hormones, and the Brain (cont'd) | ||||||||
Psychosurgery:
Psychosurgery is surgery on the brain that is intended to cure a psychological disorder. Since many brain functions are localized to particular parts of the brain, it is logical to think that disorders might also be localized to particular parts of the brain. It this were the the case, disorders might be cured by removing the part of the brain responsible for the disorder, or disconnecting it from the rest of the brain.
Frontal lobotomies, in which the frontal lobes were destroyed or disconnected from the rest of the brain, are a form of psychosurgery and were common in the first half of the 20th century.
Phineas Gage had the first recorded frontal lobotomy in 1848; it was self-inflicted. Gage was working for a railroad, blasting rocks to make way for laying the train tracks. On the day that he got his lobotomy, he was tamping blasting powder into a crevice in a rock. The tamping iron hit the rock and created a spark, igniting the blasting powder. The resulting explosion sent Gage's 1 1/4 inch diameter tamping rod through his skull, disconnecting his frontal lobes from the rest of his brain. Miraculously (remember, this was pre-civil war, pre-antibiotics, pre-modern neurosurgery), Gage survived, but after "recovering" from his injuries, his personality changed markedly. He appeared unconcerned with the consequences of his actions. He was described as "fitful, irreverant, and profane." He was unable to hold a regular job after his accident.
While the consequences of his frontal lobotomy were negative for Phineas Gage, physicians and scientists reading about Gage's case concluded that frontal lobotomies might actually be beneficial for patients with psychological disorders, especially those characterized by excessive anxiety. Based on the accounts of Phineas Gage's case and minimal animal research, frontal lobotomies were performed on thousands of people with mental disorders.
However, mental disorders are not localized to specific parts of the brain and, despite its former popularity, psychosurgery has never been shown to cure any particular psychological disorder. Psychosurgery is rarely performed any more.
Read more about the amazing story of Phineas Gage by checking out the following links:
The Amazing Case of Phineas Gage - account by Renato M. E. Sabbatini, Ph.D., published in the online journal, Brain and Mind http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n02/historia/phineas.htmOne of the factors responsible for decreasing the popularity of psychosurgery was the advent of drugs which were effective in treating psychological disorders. In fact, drugs are far more effective than psychosurgery for treating most psychological disorders. Drugs do not work on just one part of the brain; instead they work by affecting the ways that nerve cells communicate with one another. All of the recent advances in understanding and treating psychological disorders have come from understanding and changing the way that nerve cells (neurons) communicate.Phineas Gage: A Case Study in Localization of Function - nice explanation written by Richard Shuerger for about.com http://neuroscience.miningco.com/health/neuroscience/library/weekly/aa021898.htm
The Phineas Gage Information Page - everything you ever wanted to know about Phineas Gage on this page prepared by Malcolm Macmillan at Northern Michigan University http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/psychology/mmacmill/gage_page/pgage.htm
What Happened to Phineas? - the story of Phineas Gage http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/cult_sci/anthro/origins/phineas.html