To study the impact of brain trauma, UCLA researchers have virtually recreated the brain of Phineas Gage, who in 1848 had a 13-pound iron rod driven through his head and miraculously survived. His personality, however, changed dramatically.
In the video, the colored lines represent the "white matter" fibers: red fibers are those oriented left-to-right in the brain; blue are those going up-and-down; and green are oriented from the front of the brain to the back. The researchers have removed the cortex of the left hemisphere to illustrate the tamping iron's intersection with the white matter, which has never been shown before. The cortex of the right hemisphere is included for reference and to show that, by the researchers' estimation, the path of the rod left that side of the brain untouched.
