Brain Activity Detected In Dying People, May Explain Near Death Experiences

Scientists at the University of Michigan have found that out of 4 dying patients, with 2 patients a surge of brain activity was noticed in a "hot zone" of the brain critical for conscious processing.

This goes against the long held belief that when the brain is starved of oxygen it stops functioning.

The scientists observed surges of gamma waves which are associated with conscious perceptions, lucid dreams and hallucinations.

The study, published in 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Science' stated that the new observations,

"demonstrate that the surge of gamma power and connectivity observed in animal models of cardiac arrest can be observed in select patients during the process of dying,"

It was followed by stating about the brain during death,

"a biological paradox that challenges our fundamental understanding of the dying brain, which is widely believed to be nonfunctioning"

Jimo Borjigin, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan said,

"The dying brain was thought to be inactive; our study showed otherwise,"

"The discovery of the marked and organized gamma activities in the dying brain suggests that NDE is the product of the dying brain, which is activated at death.2

"As far as I am concerned, our study may be as good as it will ever get for finding neural signatures of near-death consciousness,2

"only thing better than this is to have the patients survive to tell the tale that correlates with the detected neural signatures.2

Borjigin said that it's impossible to know what the patients felt or experienced during the period of enhanced brain activity but only that the data suggests that it's a subjective experience that might involve visual or auditory aspects.

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