Skull of Phineas Gage
Created:
3/23/16
Submitted:
3/6/23
Published:
3/6/23
Description
Shown printed at 3:4 scale
Phineas Gage became the center of a landmark neuroscience case when an explosion forced a red-hot tamping iron through this railroad foreman’s brain and skull. He survived, but reportedly suffered a personality change. This was the first evidence suggesting that the frontal lobe of the brain was linked to one’s personality. A more complete story is hosted at the website of the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School, which happens to be the current home of the original skull.
It’s a fascinating case and an even more fascinating artifact. This anatomically accurate model can be printed to enable hands on exploration or to provide a source of inspiration.
This work is a derivative of the CT scan made of the Phineas Gage Skull as discussed in The Tale of Phineas Gage, digitally remastered (Ratiu, P et. al., 2004), and is being shared with the kind permission of the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library.
This model was created by Graham Holt at the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience
at Boston Children’s Hospital using 3DSlicer , MeshLab and NetFabb Basic.
This model is also being shared at Thingiverse.com (Skull of Phineas Gage).
I’d like to thank the following individuals for making this project possible:
Marianna Jakab of the Surgical Planning Laboratory within the Department of Radiology at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital for providing the original CT scan files and for interesting stories shared over a cup of tea.
Peter Ratiu, first author of The tale of Phineas Gage, digitally remastered, for his efforts to scan and explore this fascinating artifact as well as for his thoughts regarding this project.
Dominic Hall of the Warren Anatomical Museum for his enthusiasm for this project and for his kind permission to post this model.
Phineas Gage Skull (Multipart version)
by nevitdilmen
