How to live without a brain? In 1848, an American railroad worker named Finneas Hage received a serious work-related injury: a metal bar pierced his frontal lobes of the brain, entering through his left cheek and exiting near his temples.2 photos

In less than an hour, Hage returned to consciousness and then went to the hospital. On the way there, he calmly and composedly reflected on the wound in his head. An infection developed at the site of the injury, but Hage recovered and lived for another 12 years. His memory, speech abilities, and perception remained unaffected; only his personality changed—he became more irritable and lost his desire to work.