The first-ever recording of a dying brain has offered new information on what might happen in our final moments.
Scientists captured the most advanced human organ shutting down by accident, providing an incredible peek into death.
Neuroscientists employed electroencephalography (EEG) to diagnose and treat seizures in an 87-year-old patient.
When the man, who was being treated for epilepsy, slumped and died, he was hooked up to an electroencephalogram, which measures brain activity.
The electroencephalogram, on the other hand, was still monitoring his brain activity 15 minutes before he died.
In the 30 seconds leading up to the patient’s final pulse, scientists saw an increase in a certain type of brain wave.
Gamma oscillations are waves that are associated with more complex cognitive tasks and are most active when dreaming, meditating, or concentrating.
Memory recall and information processing are also linked to the waves.
According to the recording, we experience the same cerebral activity when we die as when we dream, recall memories, or meditate.
It also raises the question of whether we might experience a torrent of our finest memories in our final moments, meaning that our lives can “flash before our eyes” due to “memory retrieval.”
Alternatively, we could simply go into a meditative-like dream state.
The findings of the study, which were published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, show that our brains may remain active and coordinated even after we die.
Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville and the study’s organiser, told Frontiers Science News, “We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating.”
“Just before and after the heart stopped working, we detected alterations in a specific band of cerebral oscillations termed gamma oscillations, as well as others including delta, theta, alpha, and beta oscillations.” Memory retrieval oscillations, similar to those documented in near-death experiences, may be used by the brain to execute a final recall of important life events shortly before we die.
While the groundbreaking research is based on a single case of a patient with epilepsy and edoema, Dr. Zemmar stated that he plans to investigate more cases in the future.
He went on to note that the findings give neuroscientists hope for a better understanding of the “life recall” phenomenon that many people who have had near-death experiences claim to have experienced.
