[imagesource:here]

One of life’s great questions has, perhaps ironically, been what happens in the moments before we die.

Finding a concrete answer will likely elude us for some time. However, a study published in Frontiers In Aging Neuroscience that focused on an 87-year-old man being treated for epilepsy, does provide some insight.

By chance, scientists ended up recording the man’s brain operations as it shut down.

This will make a lot of sense to people who report experiencing vivid life recall in near-death experiences.

Sky News reports:

The man was hooked up to an electroencephalogram, which records brain activity, when he had a sudden heart attack and died.

But the electroencephalogram continued recording his brain activity, including during the 15 minutes around his death.

Scientists saw that, in the 30 seconds either side of the man’s final heartbeat, there was an increase in a certain type of brain wave.

Gamma waves are involved in high-cognitive functions. These include dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval, and conscious perception, similar to those associated with memory flashbacks.

The brain waves, called gamma oscillations, suggest that in our dying moments “we experience the same neural activity as during dreaming, recalling memories, or meditating”.

Here’s Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, who led the study:

“It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members.

Image: Frontiers

“Something we may learn from this research is that, although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.”

Zemmar and the other researchers involved did caution against drawing sweeping conclusions based on this one incident, but are hopeful it will provide a framework for further research and understanding.

Similar studies have been carried out on rats’ brains as they died, with results showing increased activity in their brains in the 30 seconds after cardiac arrest.

[source:sky]