Doctors Were Able to Study a Man's Brain Activity as He Died

Doctors have gotten a detailed look at a person's brain during their final moments of life, seemingly for the first time. The findings were obtained from a hospital patient who suddenly died while having his brain monitored for seizures, and they may offer some support for the idea that people see their lives flashing before their eyes when near death.

The research was published in a journal. An 87-year-old man was admitted to the hospital after a serious fall that left him with bleeding in his brain, according to the report. After an operation to treat the injury, the man appeared to develop seizures. TheEEG measures the brain's electrical activity. The man went into cardiac arrest after his heart stopped beating. The doctors did not try to save the man's life because of his family's wishes and the patient's Do-Not-Resuscitate status. The doctors had a unique set of data on the man's last minutes of life.

There have been many attempts to understand what happens when we die. Extrapolating what we see in controlled animal studies over to humans is one of the reasons why much of this research has involved. Some studies have been able to track the vital signs or simple brain activity of people as they are taken off life support or dying. This appears to be the first time that a dying brain has been studied in this way.

The authors say that there may be something real to the stereotypical portrayal of a near-death experience. There was an increase in brain waves associated with learning and memory after the man's heart stopped beating. The patterns of brain activity that the team documented in the man as he died resembled those seen in people who are dreaming or recalling memories.

The findings are based on a single person's brain readings. The man had a traumatic brain injury, developed seizures, and was on anticonvulsants before he died, all of which could have made his brain activity different from the average person. The authors note that a lot of what they found is similar to what has been seen in lab studies of dying rats.