How Your Brain (and a Computer) Learn the 'Rules of the Game'

In 1848, the 25-year-old Phineas Gage was working on a railroad in Vermont, packing explosive powder into a hole with an iron tamper. Unexpectedly, the powder exploded, sending the tamper backwards through Gage's skull and brain. That he survived is a miracle, but astonishingly he even seemed capable of functioning effectively, maintaining normal memory, speech, and motor skills. Those that knew him, however, thought he was anything but the same, with friends remarking he was "no longer Gage." "…his equilibrium, or balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires."