Assignment: Project 1: Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient
Assignment: Project 1: Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient
How are the brain, behavior, and personality connected? Students are to apply what they have learned in Chapter 2 of the textbook, in order to demonstrate their knowledge of the brain regions and their function, utilizing critical thinking and creativity, along with effective communication skills, by developing a PowerPoint presentation about Phineas Gage and his famous brain injury.
For the project, students are to research the brain injury sustained by Phineas Gage to gain a thorough understanding of the nature and consequences of the trauma to the brain. Then they are to create a PowerPoint presentation discussing:
- Gage’s accident and resulting injury
- His life before and after the injury
- An alternate location where the same 1 inch steel rod could have passed entirely through the skull and every section that rod would have impacted
- How this would have led to a different outcome for Gage, detailing the possible consequences.
The PowerPoint should include details of his actual injury and discuss the changes which it caused in his both behavior and life in general. Students must be sure to discuss the neuro-anatomy of the accident, not just the events. That is to say, it is not sufficient to state how the accident came about and where the injury occurred, there also needs to be a discussion of the parts of the brain involved, their function, and how this function is related to the resulting changes in Gage’s life. You should also address how the injury functionally impacted his life both in social and work settings.
This should be the same format for discussing the alternate injury as well. The alternate trajectory should be, non-fatal and must be similar to the actual injury (a 1 inch steel rod that passed entirelythrough the brain). The student is to discuss the alternate trajectory, the regions of the brain affected, and the resulting behavioral and lifestyle-related changes expected. Be sure to look at all the regions that would be impacted in the alternate path passing entirely through the brain.
Guidelines:
1. The presentation should be no less than ten slides long, excluding references and a title slide, for a total of at least 12 slides.
2. Pictures and illustrations should be included, where needed, and should enhance the content, rather than simply being decorative.
3. The presentation should indicate a strong understanding of neuro-anatomy and the functions of the brain.
4. The presentation should follow APA formatting guidelines, including using a scholarly/formal tone and grammar/spelling conventions. (For powerpoint presentations, this primarily includes properly formatted references and a title slide with all the necessary information you would include in an APA 7th edition Student Paper title page). The slides can be formatted with bullet points or paragraphs. Font should be readable and visually appealing, as well as consistent from slide-to-slide.
5. The presentation should include in-text citations for all factual information from peer-reviewed sources (e.g., academic journals, textbooks) and include a reference page providing information for the cited material. Please note: websites are not acceptable sources for this assignment.
Grading:
This presentation is worth a total of 100 points as one of the 2 projects outlined in the syllabus. Please see the rubric attached above in the “view rubric” box for specific grading criteria.
