On the afternoon of September 13th, 1848, a metal tamping rod sailed through Phineas Gage’s skull at dozens of miles an hour before coming to rest yards behind him in the Vermont leaf litter. En route, it obliterated Gage’s left frontal lobe, a few molars, and his personality, leaving him “no longer Gage” to those who knew him well. Amazingly, Gage not only survived but is remembered as “the man who began neuroscience.” Indeed, Gage’s case initiated a standard practice in neuroscience in which d...