Does life really pass before the eyes before death? A first-of-its-kind follow-up of the activity in a dying person’s brain detected vibrations that matched dreams and reconstructed moments even in the first seconds after the heart stopped.
Dr. Raoul Vicente from the University of Tartu in Estonia and Dr. Ajmal Zamar, a brain surgeon from Louisville University in the United States, along with other colleagues from Canada and the United States, monitored the electrical activity in the brain of an 87-year-old patient with epileptic seizures using an AG device. During the study, however, the patient suffered from severe cerebral hemorrhage that led to cardiac arrest and death of the patient.
The researchers began examining about 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of the patient’s death and focused on the 30 seconds before and after stopping the heart’s activity. They noted that this is the first time that the neurophysiological activity of the brain in humans at the time of death has been examined after previous studies have been done only in animals.
According to the findings published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the AG device has detected an increase in the activity of gamma waves in the brain, but also in the activity of delta, theta, alpha and beta waves. Highs, such as dreaming, meditation, perceptual information processing and memory during wakefulness.Alpha waves are associated with filtering sensory information and helping to create attention.
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“These findings challenge our understanding of the question of when life really ends and produce important questions, such as questions related to the timing of organ donation,” noted Dr. Zemar, who organized the study.
The researchers stressed that this is a study conducted in a single patient who suffered a brain injury and seizures and therefore it is difficult to fully analyze the information. Therefore, they intend to test additional patients to achieve more unambiguous results. “As a brain surgeon, I often deal with loss,” Zimar said. “Something we can learn from this study is that even though our loved ones close their eyes and are willing to leave us alone, their brains are still re-playing some of the most beautiful moments they have been through in their lives.”