near-death experience
Is our life really passing us by? Groundbreaking study reveals last thoughts of dying man
For the first time, researchers have recorded and evaluated brain scans of a dying person (symbol image)
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A group of researchers used brain scans of a dying patient to discover what goes on in our brains just before death.
Again and again people with near-death experiences report that their lives would flash back before their eyes. So far there has been no scientific evidence for this. Now a groundbreaking study shows that there might actually be something to the stories.
Brain scans of a dying man recorded for the first time. These indicate that he may have “remembered his life one last time,” the scientists say. The results of their study were published in a specialist journal on Tuesday.
Brain waves indicate dream and memory processes during dying
Neuroscientists first examined the brain waves of an 87-year-old epilepsy patient with an electroencephalography (EEG) device for seizures. However, midway through the study, the patient suffered a heart attack and died. The EEG recordings showed about 900 seconds of the patient’s brain activity. The scientists then tried to determine what exactly happened in the 30 seconds before and after the cardiac arrest.
The result: During dying, there was an increase in brain waves known as gamma oscillations, which typically occur during dreaming and memory retrieval, as well as others such as delta, theta, alpha, and beta oscillations. Gamma oscillations are linked to highly cognitive functions such as concentration, dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval, and conscious awareness.
Similar brain waves can also be measured in rats
“Given that the cross-coupling between alpha and gamma activity is involved in cognitive processes and memory retrieval in healthy individuals, it is interesting to consider whether such activity might provide a final ‘memory of life’ that could take place in the near-death state,” say the researchers.
Although this is the first study of its kind in humans, scientists have previously seen similar changes in gamma oscillations in rats. This suggests that during dying, the brain initiates and implements a biological response that may be cross-species.
Study result difficult to verify
‘Despite these caveats, the overall similarity in oscillatory changes between the highly controlled experimental study in rodents and the present work suggests that the brain may undergo a range of stereotyped patterns of activity during dying,’ the researchers say.
Since the study is based on data collected from a single patient who suffered from occasional hematoma and seizures, this complicates the interpretation of the results. ‘By definition, it is impossible to collect such data from ‘healthy subjects’. We do not assume that healthy subjects die and therefore could not obtain uninterrupted near-death recordings,’ the scientists said.