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Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

blog.frontiersin.org

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Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#11

Post by giantg2 »

dkural wrote: post #5
giantg2 wrote: post #3

Has there really never been anyone who died while hooked up to an EEG? That seems unlikely to me. Edit: liars liars pants on fire. It has been done before. https://www.sciencealert.com/brain-activity-recorded-as-much...

Read the article.

I did. I find this unbelievable and was asking if this is really true, or if this is just the first time someone wanted to publish it.

"This unexpected event allowed the scientists to record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time ever."

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#12

Post by awb »

bsmitty5000 wrote: post #2

> “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.” Note to self: die in a way that keeps my brain intact for a few seconds after death.

> discovered rhythmic brain wave patterns around the time of death that are similar to those occurring during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation

There are other possibilities besides memory recall. It sounds a little bit like falling asleep, where there might be some thoughts, some stillness (meditation) and some dreaming.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#14

Post by emteycz »

giantg2 wrote: post #11
dkural wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article.

I did. I find this unbelievable and was asking if this is really true, or if this is just the first time someone wanted to publish it. "This unexpected event allowed the scientists to record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time ever."

EEG is not easy to get right, any muscle movement from the neck up scrambles the signal. It's unlikely you'd be able to get a usable recording without planning - usually you'd be trying to save the dying person by any means and you'd do that without any regards to EEG signal quality.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#16

Post by awb »

giantg2 wrote: post #7
bsmitty5000 wrote: post #2

> “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.” Note to self: die in a way that keeps my brain intact for a few seconds after death.

They're just theorizing here. Generally that would be something to say to console someone, just like "They're in a better place". It could be just as likely that if the person had strong memories of traumatic experiences, they could be remembering them.

Yeah, it sounds like the researcher is looking at this data through the lens of consoling surviving family members.

> “As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times. It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members,” he said.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#17

Post by konart »

kingkawn wrote: post #9
dkural wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One my fears is that as I am dying my brain will get stuck in a subjective time loop, in essence, the last 30 seconds will subjectively stretch out to a thousand years... but with only a handful of repeating feelings and sensations. What if due to other physical discomfort, your memories replayed are those of regret or other unpleasant sensations? (similar to a "bad trip").

Don’t worry, even if there is a period of bad trip it will be dwarfed by the subjectively infinite relaxation into oblivion

Except you will never know because you are not the observer of this oblivion unlike that of a bad trip.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#19

Post by tomrod »

giantg2 wrote: post #3

Has there really never been anyone who died while hooked up to an EEG? That seems unlikely to me. Edit: liars liars pants on fire. It has been done before. https://www.sciencealert.com/brain-activity-recorded-as-much...

Unsure, but dead Atlantic salmon brains have been rigorously studied

Not exactly connected to the discussion, but still worth noting that brain activity sensing can be difficult! (And it also makes me smile, thinking about a fishmonger's prized frozen fish undergoing a brain scan).

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-brain/ignobe...

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#20

Post by awb »

hatchnyc wrote: post #10
bsmitty5000 wrote: post #2

> “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.” Note to self: die in a way that keeps my brain intact for a few seconds after death.

I am afraid that the last few minutes of life will be like a confusing and disoriented nightmare. That has always seemed to me to be the most likely scenario as your brain is shutting down.

Have you ever been knocked out or disoriented? It's mostly confusing.

Death could be like that too. A flood of signals you're unfamiliar with and a lack of signals you're used to having.

It probably depends on how much warning you have and your willingness / readiness to pass as well.

Kind of like if you're really tired and can't wait to fall asleep vs. scared and trying to keep yourself awake.

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