Phineas Gage

19th century American railway worker who survived a large brain trauma

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Lived 1823–1860, aged 37United States

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Era
1823–1860
Aged 37

Summary

Updated 2026-05-29

Railroad foreman who survived a tamping iron through his skull in 1848 and became neuroscience's most famous patient. The accident allegedly rewired his personality so completely that people said he was no longer himself.

Biography

About

Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable[B1] survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining 12 years of his life‍—‌effects sufficiently profound that friends saw him as "no longer Gage".

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