(ORDO NEWS) — The question of death and what happens after it with the human brain still hides many secrets. However, scientists managed to push aside the veil of the unknown and learn that after physiological death, the brain remains active for some time.
Can the brain be activated by the dying process? Scientists from the University of Michigan were interested in this question, reports PNAS.
The researchers decided to analyze the electroencephalograms (EEGs) of four dying patients before and after the clinical termination of their mechanical ventilation and found that the resulting global hypoxia markedly stimulated gamma activity in two patients. Surprisingly, some areas of the brain, according to scientists, even worked more intensively than during a person’s lifetime.
The burst of gamma activity was both local, within the temporal-parietal-occipital zone (TPO), and global between the TPO and prefrontal areas. This gamma activity was stimulated by global hypoxia and increased as the heart deteriorated in dying patients. The research data shows that the burst of gamma radiation power and the relationship observed in animal models of cardiac arrest can be observed in some patients during the dying process.
Although the mechanisms and physiological significance of these results remain to be fully understood, these data demonstrate that the brain can still be active after death. These data suggest the need to reassess the role of the brain in cardiac arrest.
“The work of the brain during cardiac arrest is poorly understood. Although loss of overt consciousness is invariably associated with cardiac arrest, it is unclear whether patients can retain latent consciousness while dying,” the article states.
The detection of brain activity at the moment of death surprised scientists, and the obtained results allowed us to look at the role of the brain in human life from an unusual angle.
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