maybe the movies were right: our lives may actually ‘flash before our eyes’ before we die, according to new research from the journal
frontiers in aging neuroscience
.
the finding came about by accident: doctors in vancouver were measuring the brain activity of an 87-year-old man with epilepsy in order to detect the patient’s seizures. they used an electroencephalogram, which involves fitting electrodes onto the scalp to detect electrical charges in the brain cells.
the man unfortunately had a heart attack and died — but while the recordings weren’t helpful in terms of treating him, they did provide valuable insights into brain function. for the first time ever, doctors have a recording of a dying human brain.
“this was actually totally by chance,” the study’s co-author dr. ajmal zemmar, a neurosurgeon who now works at the university of louisville,
told bbc news
. “we did not plan to do this experiment or record these signals.”
but the information they found was significant. in the 30 seconds before and after death, there were major changes in one specific kind of neural oscillations (also called brain waves). these kinds of gamma oscillations are involved cognitive functions like memory, dreaming, meditation, and processing of information. and those brain waves continued for about 30 seconds after the patient was declared dead.
“through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences,” zemmar
told the journal’s blog
.