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Recording Of A Dying Human Brain


DrmDoc

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"For the first time, doctors have collected detailed brain wave activity before and after a sudden death. In their interpretation, the researchers suggest life may indeed 'flash before our eyes'—but other experts aren’t so convinced." 

That quote is from a Popular Science article discussing a conclusion presented by Estonia doctors from their assessment of brain waves recordings of a patient in epileptic distress who unexpectedly died amid the seizure they were monitoring.   The doctors recorded evidence of gamma and alpha waves, which they associated with "dreaming and memory retrieval", "information processing and the visual cortex" respectively.  In a Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience paper on this event, researchers speculated "that such activity could support a last 'recall of life' that may take place in the near-death state".  Although I do agree that this patient's dying brain did experience something, I do not believe it was quite what these researchers suggest.

I am not a neuroscientist; however, my years of personal study and interest in the unconscious nature of brain function suggests to me that these recordings merely support the primary nature of brain function, which envelopes an effort to maintain its metabolic balance.  Brain activity engages as a metabolic response to stimuli, which is the impetus for all brain function.  Our brain's metabolic responses to stimuli primarily begins--and is perceived by us--as an interpretation of that stimuli. This is our brain's effort to first understand what it is experiencing before engaging a reciprocal, metabolically counterbalancing response to that experience.   If intact as it dies, I believe our dying brain proceeds to interpret what it believes it is experiencing in the absences the perceptual cues associated with life and the living. To a conscious mind, this interpretive response would present as a lucidly real experience as though the individual is entering a real place where others who are deceased have gone. To be clear, this is not about an afterlife but rather about a dying brain's understanding that it is experiencing something from which it will not recover.

 

 

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18 hours ago, DrmDoc said:

To be clear, this is not about an afterlife but rather about a dying brain's understanding that it is experiencing something from which it will not recover.

I think that's still too much of a leap. If it was a sudden death, how did the brain know "it will not recover"?

I think it's much more likely that the brain was trying to determine what was happening wrt an event it's never experienced before. Scanning the past to see if there's a familiar pattern that can explain this new phenomenon. Death could feel so different that "life flashes before your eyes" in an effort to categorize it.

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4 hours ago, Phi for All said:

I think that's still too much of a leap. If it was a sudden death, how did the brain know "it will not recover"?

I think it's much more likely that the brain was trying to determine what was happening wrt an event it's never experienced before. Scanning the past to see if there's a familiar pattern that can explain this new phenomenon. Death could feel so different that "life flashes before your eyes" in an effort to categorize it.

If I may further elaborate, the initial impact of any stimuli on brain function is a cognitive response, which is essentially a response that minimally suggests an awareness of some state of stimulation. The brain waves these researchers observed as their epileptic patient died certainly suggests that this patient's brain was experiencing some state of stimulation.  How a dying brain reacts to stimuli should inform our assessment of how this brain interprets the stimuli associated with that state.  At the very least, this research suggests that this patience's dying brain experienced that stimulus visually and in a dreamlike state. If we can agree that the dying brain is engaging an interpretive process, then it is very unlikely that "life flashes" are part of that process.  I believe it is likely that a dying brain is more engaged in the experience of what is having an immediate impact on its function than experiences that are far removed.  Memories of a life lived doesn't interpret the process of dying, which is a state antithetical to life.  Accordingly, the process of dying is likely more aptly interpreted as entering a state from which others of similar experience has not returned. Rather than a review of the patient's life experiences to understand what it may be presently experiencing, I believe the dying brain interprets that experience in the present as something that is happening now rather than as something it has encountered before.  This would present as experiencing some perceptual change of state--a perceived transition from some former state to another.   

 

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4 hours ago, Phi for All said:

more likely that the brain was trying to determine what was happening wrt an event it's never experienced before. Scanning the past to see if there's a familiar pattern that can explain this new phenomenon. Death could feel so different that "life flashes before your eyes" in an effort to categorize it.

I had basically this exact same thought when reading it. Scanning past experiences to find a way of categorizing this new one. 

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51 minutes ago, iNow said:

I had basically this exact same thought when reading it. Scanning past experiences to find a way of categorizing this new one. 

Although I agree this perspective appears plausible, it really isn't a possibly if this dying brain was experiencing a dreamlike state as its gamma waves appeared to suggest.  If near-death brain function produces a dreamlike state, then our perceptions within that state are more likely interpretations of what the brain believes it is experiencing. This suggests that the dying brain's perceptual experiences are interpretations of what is happening to it rather than a memory search for those interpretations. 

 

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10 minutes ago, DrmDoc said:

near-death brain function produces a dreamlike state, then our perceptions within that state are more likely interpretations of what the brain believes it is experiencing. This suggests that the dying brain's perceptual experiences are interpretations of what is happening to it rather than a memory search for those interpretations. 

I don’t disagree with this. I’ve experienced mild versions of my myself repeatedly with extreme hypoglycemic events. 

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