The notion that at the time of death, life “flashes before your eyes” has been a cultural expression featured in many forms of literature and film. However, new research shows that brain activity does continue after the heart stops, giving hope that at the time of passing, fond memories are being replayed.
According to Study Finds, researchers at the University of Tartu in Estonia recorded brain gamma waves during a patient’s death that resemble those that occur during dreaming and meditation. Many people who have experienced near-death experiences say that indeed, their life was replayed before their eyes but until this research, neuroscientists were at a loss to confirm the phenomenon.
Albert Einstein said that time is relative and dependent on the perception of the person and situation. So, it is possible that a lifetime of memories could flash into view during the death transition. The team at the University of Tartu led by Dr. Raul Vincente were using electroencephalography (EEG) to detect and treat seizures in an 87-year-old patient when he unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and died. This unfortunate event resulted in scientists recording the activity of a dying human brain for the first time.
“We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and just after the heart stopped beating,” said Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, according to an article published in Frontiers Science News. Zemmar was the organizer of the study.
“Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha and beta oscillations,” he reported.
The different types of oscillations, including gamma, are involved in high-cognitive functions, according to Frontiers, such as concentration, dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval, information processing and conscious perception, just like those associated with memory flashbacks.
“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,” said Zemmar. “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.”
While this study is the first to document live brain action during human death, animal experiments have noted gamma oscillation in rats kept in controlled environments. Scientists speculate whether the brain organizes in a certain pattern near death across species.
Since the data gathered came from a patient whose brain was damaged by epilepsy, seizures and swelling, the results and interpretation may be skewed by these factors. But Zemmar says he plans to investigate more cases.
“As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times,” he said. “It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members. Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.”