Scientists monitored the brains of four dying patients. Here is what they found
Dying brains experience a surge of electrical activity. This may help explain the strange phenomenon of near-death experiences.
What is happening in the brain during the dying process? Since cardiac arrest is accompanied by a loss of consciousness, brain activity is thought to decrease when a person dies. However, people from all walks of life have stated that they were very lucid during their near-death experiences, and animal studies have shown that brain activity actually increases at the moment of death.
Surge in Activity
Ten years ago, a research team led by Jimo Borzigin at the University of Michigan recorded a temporary surge of electrical activity in the brains of rats immediately after fatal cardiac arrest. And a follow-up study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America showed that a similar pattern of activity occurs in the dying human brain.
The study was conducted on four comatose patients who died in the neurointensive care unit at the University of Michigan Hospital, all of whom were on life support after suffering significant brain damage due to cardiac arrest in 2014. To determine what is happening in the brain at the moment of death, Borisigin and colleagues analyzed electroencephalographic (EEG) data from these four patients before and after the ventilator was turned off.
Within seconds of life support being turned off, two of the patients showed a surge of neurophysiological activity, characterized by changes in several different EEG “bands,” at both local and global levels. Higher frequency gamma waves (associated with attention and perception) and lower frequency beta waves (associated with focus and concentration) were larger and more tightly coupled in multiple brain regions. In addition, brain waves of different frequencies within different regions of both hemispheres also became synchronized with each other.
This region is located at the junction of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes and is thought to play an important role in conscious processing. Connectivity between this hot zone and parts of the frontal cortex also increased.
Does this explain NDEs? The study demonstrated a transient surge of electrical activity throughout the brain when life support through artificial respiration was removed. The researchers suggest that subjective reports of vivid perception during near-death experiences may be related to the observed patterns of brain activity.
In this case, however, the dying patient was completely silent, so it cannot be concluded that the brain activity observed in the two individuals was related to the near-death experience. This brain activity could have been artificial or the result of some pathological process.
Even so, the researchers argue that their findings warrant further investigation into “hidden” consciousness during cardiac arrest and suggest a brain mechanism for human consciousness more generally.
Source: Scientists monitored the brains of four dying patients. Here is what they found
Researchers May Have Discovered the Part of the Brain Where Conscious Experience Exists