We often see in movie that when a character dies, his life flashes in front of his eyes. Now research has revealed hints that such recall may not just be a dramatized exaggeration.
An international team of scientists has reported an 'accidental' research in which they recorded the brain activity of an 87-year-old patient as he died.
The man had been admitted to a hospital emergency department after a fall that resulted in a bleed in his brain, and it deteriorated subsequently.
The decided to carry out an electroencephalography (EEG) that is when they discovered the patient had developed epilepsy. However, during the EEG recordings he had experienced a heart attack and died.
In the analysis of recordings, the team says that the 30 seconds before and after the man’s heart stopped beating, he experienced changes in different types of brain waves, including alpha and gamma brain waves. The study suggests that interactions between different types of brain wave continue after the blood stops flowing in the brain.
In the 30 seconds before the patient's heart stopped supplying blood to the brain his brainwaves followed the same patterns as when we carry out high-cognitive demanding tasks, like concentrating, dreaming or recalling memories.
However, the findings are based on the recordings from just one person, and the researchers urge caution, noting among other factors that traumatic brain injuries and white matter damage can affect brain waves, while activity of networks in the brain can be affected by anticonvulsant medication such as that given to the patient.
Nonetheless, the researchers say the results could have important implications. This study is the first of its kind to record brain activity in a dying human brain in real-time.
The findings were published in a new study published in the journal 'Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience' and was conducted by a team of scientists from around the world, including members of the neurosurgery department at University of British Columbia, Canada and the neurosurgery division of the department of surgery at University of Toronto, Canada.
