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Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

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81–90 of 197 posts

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

#81

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…

It seems strange to imagine telling someone who isn't going to experience anything ever again anything at all.

If they listen and notice they experience something right then and there and maybe at that point it's nice to feel loved... a sweet moment for a dying person briefly supercedes the metaphysical confusion of the living.

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

#82

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…

It seems strange to imagine telling someone who isn't going to experience anything ever again anything at all.

people are strange then.

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

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> usually you'd be trying to save the dying person by any means I expect that in the majority of deaths, nobody is making any effort whatsoever to save the dying person.

Why do you expect this?

consider all the people who die in hospice.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> usually you'd be trying to save the dying person by any means I expect that in the majority of deaths, nobody is making any effort whatsoever to save the dying person.

Why do you expect this?

Most people die from natural causes, and doctors do not perform heroic measures to try and give them a few more minutes before they succumb.

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

#85
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read before comment: > When an 87-year-old patient developed epilepsy, Dr Raul Vicente of the University of Tartu, Estonia and colleagues used continuous electroencephalography (EEG) to detect the seizures and treat the patient. During these recordings, the patient had a heart attack and passed away. This unexpected event allowed the scientists to record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time ever.

Don't be snarky. It's a real question. And apparently the article has incorrect information. https://www.sciencealert.com/brain-activity-recorded-as-much...

The article I quoted is correct and doesn’t have incorrect information:

> Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain and discovered rhythmic brain wave patterns around the time of death that are similar to those occurring during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation.

>NOW, a study published to Frontiers brings new insight into a possible organizational role of the brain during death and suggests an explanation for vivid life recall in near-death experiences.

The record has already been done, but now the scientists have found what the -already recorded- data could tell/show.

> a new study published to Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests that your brain may remain active and coordinated during and even after the transition to death, and be programmed to orchestrate the whole ordeal.

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

#86
post #27
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…

Everyone has been dead before: Do you have any trepidations about the times before you were born? It's trite to say this, yes, but it gives some comfort to know we are born with the experience of not being alive. Of course Your Metaphysics may apply.

Yeah, personally, I feel tons of anxiety about the effectively-infinite void of time before my existence, and that which will come after it. They are the same to me. Even though physically we are "born", I find it really upsetting that our experience and sense of selves is just an emergent organic process, a millisecond of a dream padded by infinite nothingness.

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

#87
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When We die, if there is nothing coming, how is it to not exist? I mean, what is it like? The question doesn't make any sense. If I smash you in the head with a hammer and you have brain damage which changes your personality, makes it so you can't access some memories, and can't control your body properly.. we accept that as literal brain damage- we have broke the machine (our brain) in some regard. Everyone accepts…

I think maybe the OP was referring to Chalmers hard question about consciousness. What you are talking about is closer to the "easy" question regarding understanding the of the neurological mechanisms but that's distinct from the "what is it like" subjective mechanisms. The hard question is hard, in part, because we don't (yet, at least) have a way to measure the way subjective experience emerges, so we don't have a…

imo it still doesn't seem coherent even with the "hard question" framing, the very foundation of the hard question begs us to ask why it is that subjective experience is rather than not, lacking subjective experience means we're discussing something outside the scope of the hard question, it's akin to asking "what happened before time"?

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

#88

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…

this assumes that death is binary: you're either dead or not. this is not how things work. you don't know the precise time duration and what happens unless you are there to experience it. i think the best time to say goodbye and i love you is at any point in time

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

#89

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…

It seems strange to imagine telling someone who isn't going to experience anything ever again anything at all.

At that point I would imagine the words are mostly for the speaker, rather than the listener. Mourning is all about saying goodbye.

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

#90
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…

That is just your monkey brain freaking out to instinctual fear of death.
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