Video: Bizzare Brain Accident in 1800s Studied

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Scientists have digitally remastered what happened to the brain of Phineas Gage, who survived one of the most bizarre accidents in history. Gage, 25, was a a supervisor for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont in 1848. While working with a 3-foot, 13-pound rod , an explosion occurred that drove the rod through his left check and out the top of his head. He survived the accident but records say his personality changed from pleasant to generally irritable. UCLA researchers looked at damage from computational models of Gage's brain and found more than 10 percent of the white matter had been destroyed. Because white matter contains the neurons that help us reason and remember, this could account for Gage's personality change.