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Although he eventually
recovers, he experiences profound mood and behavior changes. By
all accounts, a quiet, industrious worker before the accident, Gage
becomes a surly, combative man who can not hold down a job. This
famous case, now found in countless neuroscience textbooks, was
an important milestone in the study of the brain's anatomy because
it suggested that key parts of the personality resided in the frontal
lobe. These findings indirectly lead to the development of the procedure
called lobotomy, which was based on the theory that removing portions
of the frontal lobe could cure mental derangement and depression.
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