Doctors and neuroscientists have documented brain activity in an 87-year-old man who suffered a cardiac arrest. The documentation was done on an EEG – a device for recording brain activity, according to which it was discovered that the brain signals lasted 30 seconds after the heart stopped working.
Another similar matter
According to the team, this is the first time they have real-time documentation of brain activity after a phase has stopped beating. Brain activity is described as similar to meditation, dreaming or recalling some event from the course of life. Some call this the last feeling of peace.
The case was recently reported in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Documentation of brain activity took place at a hospital in Vancouver, Canada. The 87-year-old patient arrived at a hospital in 2016 after he fell and suffered a brain hemorrhage. During the treatment to stop the bleeding, the patient began to experience epileptic seizures and therefore the doctors gave him antiepileptic drugs (phenytoin and latiracetam) and at the same time underwent an EEG test to find out the cause of the seizures.
During the examination, separate electrographic seizures were documented, after which the elderly man underwent cardiac arrest. A notice of cessation of treatment was given to his family but the EEG device continued to record for 900 seconds data on brain activity. Brain activity was stopped shortly after the seizures and after that there was an increase for another 30 seconds in the activity of the nerve signals in the brain with relatively high signals, and after this period of time it began to gradually decrease until it stopped completely.
An in-depth study of the EEG record revealed that there was an increase in gamma wave oscillations in those seconds. These are involved in high cognitive functions – dreaming and information processing involving high concentration as well as memory recovery and flashbacks. The increase in gamma wave activity was recorded along with a reduction in delta, theta, alpha and beta waves. This has to do with the gradual cessation of blood flow to the brain.
The researchers claim that the findings of the study raise questions such as when exactly life ends and at the same time what is the right timing for organ donation.