The Importance of Brain Maps

Some of you will be familiar with the story of a young man who had a terrible accident that taught the world a lot about how your brain maps onto who you are. This young man was named Phineas Gage, and in 1848 he was working with a crew on a railroad near Cavendish, Vermont. The way the land was cleared to build the railroad was by a series of explosions. And so when he pounded the tamping rod into the hole, the metal rod hit a rock and caused a spark, and the gunpowder exploded. It went below his chin and it burst out the top of his skull.