Any injury to the body can have a tremendous effect on daily functioning.The brain when injured, is considered to be most fragile and to have the highest profound problems. The brain has many lobes that are all responsible for different functions. The largest lobe, the frontal lobe, is responsible for motor function, problem solving, memory, language, impulse control and aspects of personality. “The prefrontal cortex is involved with many complex cognitive phenomena, including reasoning and decision making, control of emotional response, expression of personality, and goal monitoring” (Bice, K. 2018).
An article I recently read shows just how this is so when interviewing a man who was in a severe car accident and now describes himself as someone totally different then he once was. “I used to have so much good humor and I used to be a leader. But now, after brain injury, I’m more inclined to just watch, I used to be even-tempered but now I might flare up with anger, especially if I’m tired” (NBC, 2013). Damage to the frontal lobe causes a deficit in self control and rationalization. This area of the brain is what we use everyday in making decisions, thinking before acting, planning, social behavior and personality expression. The crash victim explains several significant changes to his persona.
Consider someone with damage to the frontal lobe the same as someone who is permanently impaired from a substance like alcohol or a narcotic with a similar effect. Dr. Brent Masel, National medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America states “One of the problems for people with injuries to the frontal lobes is they frequently do or say things before they’ve thought them out. It’s sort of like somebody who’s had three, four beers. An injury there can cause you to lose that filter,” (NBC, 2013).
The prefrontal cortex is also tasked with holding information after information disappears. This explains why damage to the lobe creates a sense of “loss of self” to the victim as well as other individuals who endure such trauma. Unfortunately at this time there is no reversal to this brain damage, though victims of such trauma may seek therapy to help cope with their new personality traits such as learning to better cope with anger outbursts.
References:
Bice, K. Working Memory And The Brain. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1923779/modules/items/23782731
NBC staff writers (2013). ‘A different person’: Personality change often brain injury’s hidden toll Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/health/different-person-personality-change-often-brain-injurys-hidden-toll-8C11152322
Aside from the obvious detriment to the victim, we have seen how important studying and analyzing brain damage is especially to cognitive psychologists. Numerous cases of patients having a part of their brain removed in order to stop a medical ailment such as seizures in the Henry Molaison case. To treat his seizures, they cut part of his hippocampus leaving him amnesiac. (Dittrich, 2016) Cases like this give cognitive psychologist an insight into what happens when a part of the brain is removed allowing them to make connections as to what its function was. This is a way to test for double dissociation, when you test two different parts of the brain for different functions. If a function only works in one part of the brain and not the other than that function is exclusive to that part of the brain. This is how the brain was mapped at first and it was much more significant than phrenology could hope to be. Henry Molaison will be remembered for a very long time due to his importance in psychology but his case is still a sad story similar to the case you provided.
Works Cited
Dittrich, L. (2016, August 14). The Lobotomy of Patient H.M: A personal Tragedy And Scientific Breakthrough. Retrieved from National Public Radio: https://www.npr.org/2016/08/14/489997276/how-patient-h-m-and-his-lobotomy-contributed-to-understanding-memories