Recent research by neuroscientists has captured the first evidence of brain activity during human death, revealing that dying individuals may undergo a 'life review.' This phenomenon, commonly reported in near-death experiences, involves rapidly recalling autobiographical memories. The groundbreaking study observed an 87-year-old patient who experienced cardiac arrest while undergoing treatment for epilepsy. The researchers recorded 900 seconds of brain activity, finding continued activation in areas related to memory retrieval just before and after the heart stopped beating, raising questions about the precise moment of death and implications for organ donation practices.
These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends and generate important subsequent questions, such as those related to the timing of organ donation.
Through generating brain oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die.
Collection
[
|
...
]