A.  Through a freak accident in 1848.

Consider the curious tale of Phineas Gage (1823-1860).  Phineas Gage was a railroad foreman of a railway track construction crew in Cavendish, Vermont.  To prepare the site for laying track, workers would drill holes in the ground and place a charge of dynamite inside.  To ensure that the charge was well placed, they used a tamping iron (see below) to firm it into the ground.  Mr. Gage was checking the dynamite laid by his men when a charge accidentally exploded, blowing the tamping iron point first under his left cheek bone and straight out the top of his head, landing 75 to 90 feet behind him!  Miraculously, Phineas was knocked over but not knocked out.  The left frontal lobe of his brain was visible through the open flap of scalp and skull.  Mr. Gage was treated and tended to by a young physician and actually returned to his home only 10 weeks later.  After about 6-8 months, Phineas felt strong enough to return to work.  His change in personality, however, was dramatic.  No longer could was he an efficient businessman, capable of planning, formulating and following goals, and effectively managing those who worked under his supervision.  Once an even-tempered man, he now was irritable, impatient, unable to attend to a task for any length of time.  He now would curse and was rude to others.  His friends said that he was "No longer Gage."

A.  By allowing us to not act on our first impulses, to do 2 different things at once, and to be flexible in our thinking.  Here are some examples.

The Stroop Effect

First discovered by a man named Stroop in 1935, the Stroop effect shows us that reading becomes an "automatic" behavior when presented with words.  Try the following:

Read these words.
 

Now, name the color of these words.
 

Is it harder naming the colors of the words than the XXXs?  Why?

Because your brain was distracted by wanting to read the word, especially when the word is one of the possible answers!

Did you find yourself wanting to read the word?  If you were able to not read the word and instead to name the color of the ink, then your frontal lobes are working!  They allowed you to keep from saying the wrong answer, even though you might have "said" it in your head.

This ability to keep from saying something wrong or inappropriate helps you with your friendships and keeps you out of the principal's office!

Can you count from 1 to 26 and say the alphabet at the same time, going back and forth between numbers and letters (1-A-2-B-3-C...)?  This is an example of divided attention.  Your frontal lobes allow you to keep track of where you are in the numbers and the letters and directs you to not say two numbers or two letters in a row. 

This is how you can play Nintendo and talk to your friends at the same time!

How are the following two things alike?
 

Could you figure them all out?  Were some easier than others?  You can thank your frontal lobes for helping you see connections between the words and for allowing you to understand different ways to think of some words.
 

Try another test of mental flexibility.

Divide these 6 stimuli into 2 groups according to some characteristic.  Now divide them into 2 new groups, by using a different strategy.  Again, your frontal lobes helped you think of other ways to put these objects into categories.
 

Mental flexibility allows you to figure out possible solutions to problems you might face and to consider alternate explanations for events.
 
 

If you feel like writing about your brain, why don't you enter the Neuroscience for Kids Writing Contest!  Deadline is February 1, 2002.  Good luck!