US scientists decode what happens in the brain shortly before dying

Researchers at the University of Michigan, USA, found evidence of sudden increases in high-frequency mental wave activity in specific brain regions of two dying patients.

These waves, associated with consciousness, could explain the wide range of memories of extraordinary experiences that survivors of near-death situations manifest.

Why does life flash before our eyes when we are about to die?: Scientists discover a possible answer by studying a dying brain.

Very often, dying people who have regained consciousness later report seeing a light at the end of a tunnel or having the sensation of being outside their own bodies.

They also report that they met deceased loved ones or that they were able to recapitulate important events they experienced in an instant, as if life were passing before their eyes.

The fact that these stories come from people of diverse cultural backgrounds and share common elements points to a possible underlying biological mechanism.

Which brain regions were activated?

The team reviewed the electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of four dying patients before and after clinical withdrawal of their ventilatory support and found that the resulting global hypoxia markedly stimulated gamma activities in two of the patients, a 24-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman. 77 years old.

Brain and heart activity was monitored, second by second, during the last hours of life.

The increase in gamma connectivity, associated with consciousness, occurred within the temporo-parieto-occipital (TPO) junctions and between the TPO areas and contralateral prefrontal areas.

The researchers believe that these data show that the dying brain can still be active. Their results were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

Jimo Borjigin, who led the work, told AFP that, although it is not the first research of its kind, what is original about this study is that it details the process of brain activation in a way “that has never been done before.” During this work, it was further examined which parts of the brain lit up and it was found that these areas are associated with changes in consciousness.

“If this part of the brain lights up, that means the patient is seeing something, can hear something, and can feel sensations outside the body,” Borjigin explained, noting that that region was “on fire.” Experts attributed the difference in behavior of the four study participants to the fact that the patients who experienced the potential signs of “covert consciousness” had a history of seizures that could have primed their brains in some way.

The authors of the research cautioned that due to the small sample size it was not possible to make far-reaching inferences and that they could not confirm that the patients had actually had visions. (RT Information).

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