Mysterious activity detected in brains of dying people
The mysteries of the brain have been unraveled through the work of neuroscientists from all over the world. In the brains of two people who were on the verge of death and as they transitioned into death, a group of researchers have now discovered a mysterious surge in activity.
For a long time, scientists have been trying to figure out the science of the brain and what happens in a person's dying moments before it completely shuts down. A surge of gamma waves has been observed in previous animal studies when cardiac and respiratory arrest occurs.
A comparable action has now been recognized in the human cerebrum. Gamma waves are related with memory handling in the mind and are found during cognizant discernment.
Researchers from the University of Michigan in the United States analyzed the electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals of four dying patients prior to and following the cessation of ventilatory support in order to gain a deeper comprehension of what takes place in the brain during the dying process. The four individuals were in a coma.
ECG is used to check the condition of the heart, whereas EEG is used to monitor the functioning of the brain and track the electrical activity of the brain by detecting signals that are produced by the neurons.
According to the findings that were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers discovered that in two of the patients, hypoxia, or low oxygen levels in the brain, was accompanied by an increase in gamma activities.
"The state of the brain during cardiac arrest is poorly understood. "It is unclear whether patients can possess covert consciousness during the dying process, although the loss of overt consciousness is invariably associated with cardiac arrest," scientists stated in the paper.
Since 2014, cases of patients who passed away in the neuro-intensive care unit were examined by researchers at Michigan Medicine, the academic medical center of the University of Michigan. They discovered a long-distance connection between both hemispheres of the brain when they observed a sharp jump in gamma waves in one region of the brain.
According to the abstract of the paper, "Perception of bright light or familiar faces reported by survivors of clinical death suggests a preserved capacity in the dying brain to process internally generated vision."
The group expressed that it actually still needs not set in stone assuming the back cortical districts, which are situated at the rear of the head and are answerable for handling visual data, are actuated in the withering human mind.
The gamma wave was initially located in a part of the brain known as
the hot zone, which has in the past been associated with people
dreaming, and in seizure patients who report having visual
hallucinations. The hot zone in the brain is a region known to be
critical for conscious processing.
However, the patients did not survive to describe what they saw due to the elevated gamma waves.
"While
the mechanisms and physiological significance of these findings remain
to be fully explored, these data demonstrate that the dying brain can
still be active. They also suggest the need to reevaluate the role of
the brain during cardiac arrest," the team concluded in the paper.
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