But now researchers at NYU Langone Hospital in New York may have lifted the veil by monitoring the brains of dying people in cardiac arrest and comparing the measurements with the memories of those patients who survived.
Brains live on
The researchers studied 567 patients who were successfully resuscitated in hospital. During resuscitation, they measured the dying patient’s brain activity with an EEG, a technology that works with electrodes.
4 out of 10 patients who survived remembered a certain level of consciousness during resuscitation, which was not confirmed by the measurements. They could talk about what they had experienced and had clear memories of death.
In a subgroup of these patients, brain activity was still near normal levels even an hour after their heart stopped.
The EEGs showed frantic activity during resuscitation, with brain patterns indicative of mental functioning. The patients showed spikes in gamma, delta, theta, alpha and beta waves, which often occur when someone is conscious and trying to think about or remember something.
“Although doctors have long believed that the brain suffers permanent damage about 10 minutes after the heart stops sending oxygen, our research shows that the brain can show signs of electrical recovery long after resuscitation has begun,” said the lead author by the researchSam Parnia, director of resuscitation research at NYU Langone.
The findings suggest that human consciousness does not stop at the moment of death.
According to the researchers, the explanation is that a number of inhibitory systems fail in a dying brain that limit us cognitively while we are still alive.
These processes, disinhibition can provide access to ‘new dimensions of reality’. According to the researchers, this means that patients have access to the depths of their consciousness, where memories from their early childhood, forgotten experiences and repressed traumas are hidden.
Patients described the experience, among other things, as if they were detached from their body.
One patient was even able to recognize a specific sound that was playing as doctors tried to resuscitate him.
“These recalled experiences and brain wave changes may be the first signs of the so-called near-death experience, and we have recorded them for the first time,” says Parnia.
2023-09-19 19:12:39
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