Near death experience Accounts include stories of white light, visits from deceased loved ones, hearing voices that, among other features, capture our imaginations and ingrained in our culture. our chemistry.
The fact that these reports have so many similarities makes one wonder if there is something truly fundamental behind them. It is also possible that death survivors are exhibiting flashes of a consciousness that persists even after the heart has stopped beating.
A new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides early evidence that increased activity correlates with awareness in the dying brain.
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The study, led by Jimo Borjigin, PhD, an associate professor in the Departments of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and the Departments of Neuroscience, and her team is a follow-up to animal studies conducted nearly ten years ago with collaboration of George Mashour, MD, Ph.D., founding director of the Michigan Center for Consciousness Science.
Similar signs of gamma activation have been recorded in the dying brains of both animals and humans due to the loss of oxygen following cardiac arrest.
“How vivid experiences can emerge from a dysfunctional brain during death is a neuroscience paradox. Dr. Borjigin has led an important study that has led to significant research,” said Mashour. elucidate the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms”.
The team identified four patients who died of cardiac arrest in the hospital while undergoing EEG monitoring. All four patients were comatose and unresponsive. They were eventually determined to be unable to provide medical assistance and, with their family’s permission, were removed from the life support system.
After the ventilator support was removed, two of the patients showed an increased heart rate with an increase in gamma wave activity, which is considered the fastest brain activity and associated with consciousness.
Furthermore, activity was detected in the so-called hot regions of the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the junction between the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes at the back of the brain. This area has been implicated in dreams, visual hallucinations in epilepsy, and altered state of consciousness in other brain studies.
Nusha Mihaylova, MD, Ph.D., clinical associate professor in the Department of Neurology, who has been collaborating with Dr Borjigin since 2015, explains: These two patients had previously reported seizures. , but had no seizures within an hour of their death. EEG data from deceased patients receiving ICU care. The other two patients did not have the same increase in heart rate when the life support device was removed, and they also did not have an increase in brain activity.
Because of the small sample size, the authors cautioned against making any global statements about the significance of the findings. They also note that it is not possible to know what the patients experienced in this study because they did not survive.
“We were not able to correlate the observed neural signatures of consciousness with the corresponding experience in the same patients in this study. However, the observed findings are certainly exciting. taste and provides a new framework for our understanding of the secret consciousness in dying people.” she speaks.
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