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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

#181

Post by User23 »

bigyikes wrote: post #173
User23 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dreams are deeply weird and interesting. I was really disappointed when I took psychology that the dogma was they’re just synaptic static that maybe has something to do with long term memory formation. I’ve had deeply odd dreams, where I’ve been told things I have no way of knowing. I’ve also had dreams where I’m near certain I was communicating with a being that was not merely a figment of my imagination. I’ve had m…

> Once I had a dream that was so lucid it felt more real than being awake. Have you ever taken DMT? Not to imply that what you experienced was physiologically related to the drug. It’s just that being “more real” than reality is often how intense psychedelic experiences are described.

I’ve never taken any psychedelic of any sort. On the other hand the brain is basically a drug factory, among other things, so my experience may well have some overlap with psychedelic use.

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

#182

Post by allemagne »

User23 wrote: post #154
hutzlibu wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It could just as easily be near-random memory access, similar to when we dream" Is it established that dreaming is near-random memory access? I thought the whole process of dreaming is quite far from being understood, so wouldn't it be a stretch to call it near-random, when in reality there might be pattern, but just one we do not understand yet?

Dreams are deeply weird and interesting. I was really disappointed when I took psychology that the dogma was they’re just synaptic static that maybe has something to do with long term memory formation. I’ve had deeply odd dreams, where I’ve been told things I have no way of knowing. I’ve also had dreams where I’m near certain I was communicating with a being that was not merely a figment of my imagination. I’ve had m…

Dreams being caused by random static doesn't need to mean that there isn't something transcendent, significant, or purposeful going on. For any given pet theory about what dreams "mean" or what they're "for", I just don't think there's a good way of falsifying it.

At the same time there's plenty of evidence that everyone's brain is a lot weirder and deeper than what we're consciously aware of. I think the truth just has to lie somewhere a lot spookier than dreams being essentially meaningless.

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

#183

Post by hotsauceror »

rootusrootus wrote: post #130
emteycz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about people lying on hospital bed tied to EEG. There are usually going to be people saving that person.

Unless they are lying in bed preparing to die. In which case we could opt to hook them up to an EEG and record it, for the science. It would not be the least bit difficult to get any number of willing volunteers, it would not require some kind of accident. OP was wondering how it could be possible that nobody ever thought to do exactly that.

This has been done, and in fact I believe the article was posted here on HN a couple of years ago.

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

#184

Post by jmopp »

petercooper wrote: post #148
oblak wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you just don't remember the experiences you've had during this moment? Not impossible, imho

It's an interesting point that rapidly becomes philosophical in a "if a tree falls in the woods" sense. I recently read a paper that suggested that sedating anaesthesia used with the promise of making a patient unaware of a procedure may actually do no such thing - instead they prevent the patient remembering the procedure afterwards. Which as a potential patient one day.. is a little terrifying, because even if I do…

When you're taken out of a minor surgery, you're usually awake as you're wheeled from the operating theatre back to your ward. If I think though about the one time I had surgery, I remember being told to think of something relaxing, falling asleep, and then waking up back in the ward. It's really interesting to think about how there was a brief period where I was awake, yet making no memories.

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

#185

Post by johnisgood »

sn41 wrote: post #175
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I didn't see any evidence in that article that it was positive - for all we know it it's the brain serving up a collection of every time you told the waiter "you too" right after they said "enjoy your meal".

yeah... I never get over how stupid I feel when I say that. I keep doing it, especially when I am already slightly flustered.

"Thank you" is the default to me, so I typically say that. It has been working out well so far. The only funny thing that I keep doing is this: we have two phrases we use when we say "see you" on the phone, and in person, and I sometimes use the phrase in person that is intended to be used for ending a phone conversation! It is pretty hilarious. I wonder if they notice or what they think about it.

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

#186

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

h0l0cube wrote: post #107
DanHulton wrote: post #51

There's an awful lot of uncritical supposition in this article. Sure, the brain MAY be recalling all the best moments of your life before you die, but there's zero evidence that that's what those recordings mean, aside from whimsy and hopefulness. It could just as easily be near-random memory access, similar to when we dream, and that, to me, sounds a lot more likely. I know I'm the big grumpy curmudgeon here, but I…

People describe a variety of near death experiences, including out of body experiences. A cursory Google led me to this study: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2014/10/07-worlds-largest... "Among those who reported a perception of awareness and completed further interviews, 46 per cent experienced a broad range of mental recollections in relation to death that were not compatible with the commonly used term of NDE’…

There is https://nderf.org/

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

#187

Post by Pyramus »

Retric wrote: post #127
Pyramus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. You fell into the trap of judging a book by its cover. That is not to distract from the fact that there were and are controversies surrounding Frontiers - you can't just lazily extrapolate from that.

It’s fine to judge things in part based on journal because self selection is involved. That doesn’t mean anything is defiantly wrong with the paper, but it is a real signal.

I should have been more specific - Frontiers being a predatory journal is more noise than signal. It's useful to have heuristics such as Beall's list, but they will never capture the subtle (and broken) complexities of academic publishing. In this specific case, in 2022, most researchers agree that the heuristic is misleading.

For more information see e.g. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/124807/has-a-jo...

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

#188

Post by disabled »

KineticLensman wrote: post #58
DonCarlitos wrote: post #8

This corresponds with what I've read previously about brain activity following clinical death. What appears to be the case is that the brain continues to work for a period after the heart stops and a last breath is taken. So what that might mean is that if one is with a person who has just died, a relative or friend, there is still a moment, just a moment, to say good bye and I love you. And it is comforting to know…

> the brain continues to work for a period after the heart stops I had a sudden cardiac arrest (Ventricular Fibrillation). I felt dizzy and oriented for a few seconds (5?) after my heart stopped pumping blood and then I passed out. There was no life-flashing-before-my-eyes, no tunnels of light, just sudden dizziness and disorientation and then nothing. The next thing I remember was coming round in hospital.

First, I am sorry that you went through that.

Near death experiences do not happen to everyone who dies and is resuscitated. Supposedly, according to Wikipedia [1], it only happens to 10-20% of people. If someone is critically ill, it happens to 17% of those people.

But, it does happen to some people who go in to cardiac arrest.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience

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

#189

Post by mensetmanusman »

tekni5 wrote: post #100
schodi wrote: post #22

I have that inner emotion, when thinking about death. It makes me very uneasy. When We die, if there is nothing coming, how is it to not exist? I mean, what is it like? Pure black and emptyness? I then comfort myself into thinking, in the end it comes down to energy. Like being part of that endless stream of energy that became matter and probably will return to energy somewhere in infinty. Or do we maybe just restart…

The real question for me is if consciousness is even real/physical or just an illusion. After you die time has no meaning and we don't know what happens trillions and trillions of years from that point. Maybe with limited matter or infinity, the exact universe patterns emerge once again that give you consciousness. Maybe you are reborn again in the same identical universe that contains your biological pattern, and li…

Not sure illusion is the right type of term, because it implies an illusion for someone :) who would that be if there is no ‘to be’?

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

#190

Post by TechBro8615 »

tekni5 wrote: post #100
schodi wrote: post #22

I have that inner emotion, when thinking about death. It makes me very uneasy. When We die, if there is nothing coming, how is it to not exist? I mean, what is it like? Pure black and emptyness? I then comfort myself into thinking, in the end it comes down to energy. Like being part of that endless stream of energy that became matter and probably will return to energy somewhere in infinty. Or do we maybe just restart…

The real question for me is if consciousness is even real/physical or just an illusion. After you die time has no meaning and we don't know what happens trillions and trillions of years from that point. Maybe with limited matter or infinity, the exact universe patterns emerge once again that give you consciousness. Maybe you are reborn again in the same identical universe that contains your biological pattern, and li…

This sounds like biocentrism: https://www.robertlanza.com/biocentrism-how-life-and-conscio...
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