“Mysterious Surge of Brain Activity Detected in Dying Patients: Study”

CNN Indonesia

Monday, 08 May 2023 08:01 WIB

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

a number expert from the University of Michigan detected increased activity in brain two people who are dying. What does it mean?

This study is the second after a similar study last year. In the first study from the University of Louisville, experts found increased activity in the brain called gamma waves along with other frequencies.

Quoted from Science Alertexperts in this second study found the same phenomenon in two patients who were dying and had their respirators removed.

“These findings remind us to investigate the neural activity of the brain of dying patients, before and after clinical removal of a respirator,” said neurologist Jimo Borjigin.

Since 2013, Borjigin and his colleagues have been studying the brain waves of dying humans. They actively searched for similarities between this and what they had found in mice.

In his article in the journal PNASthe experts revealed an increase in brain activity in mice before the animal died.

In their study, they used the electroencephalography method on rats that were in heart failure experiments. “We identified a transient spike of synchronous gamma oscillations that occurs within the first 30 seconds after cardiac arrest and precedes an isoelectric electroencephalogram,” he wrote.

For their study in humans, these experts looked at cases from the University of Michigan medical center. They took samples of patients who died in intensive care since 2014.

In two of the four patients identified, electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings revealed a sharp increase in gamma waves in one part of the brain that scattered to remote connections in both hemispheres.

The initial spike of the gamma waves is located in an area of ​​the brain that is considered the ‘hot zone’ for the so-called neural correlates of consciousness.

Similar activity patterns have been observed in dreamers, and in seizure patients who report having visual hallucinations and out-of-body experiences.

Unfortunately, none of the survivors spoke of what they might have seen, felt, or experienced while on the verge of death. Also, not all experts believe that out-of-body experiences are connected to death itself.

Instead, the increase could be a neurological response to stress from the heart, which starves the brain of oxygen.

On the other hand, similar studies also detected changes that only existed in a few patients. However, Borijin and his colleagues remain optimistic.

They believe that as each case is studied we may learn a little more about the final moments of life and consciousness.

“This study lays the foundation for further investigation of secret consciousness during cardiac arrest, which can serve as a model system for exploring the mechanisms of human consciousness,” they concluded.

(lth/arh)