I'm curious - on average, how long after someone's brain has become electrically silent does it take for irreversible damage to occur?

 

Or, how long after someone died would it take for revival (with an intact brain) to become fundamentally impossible? In the case that actual revival may become unfeasible before the brain has significantly decayed, assume the ability to revive someone is not in question - how long would it take for chemically stored information in the brain and the cell structure of the brain to deteriorate beyond any hope of retrieval?

A general rule I know: longer than 5min. without oxygen is trouble.

But I'm sure there are many parameters changing that.

One that I know is the temperature of the body/brain, cold is better.

 

One more thing, I don't think you can talk of an intact brain since it's changing all the time. or you will have to define that better.

But some medical people will probably have a more correct answer.

Bump.

 

 

I know an "intact brain" is somewhat badly defined, but I can't really think of any other way to describe it... "Undamaged" is what I'm trying to convey, in any case - at least, not damaged beyond the point of possible recovery.

 

As for temperature, I hadn't actually considered that - now that you mention it, though, for the purposes of the original question, the brain should be assumed to be in an environment at around room temperature (although presumably the body will be warmer at first). But also, an addendum to the original question: how well does cooling the brain down preserve its structure and contents? Is current cryogenic technology sufficiently capable of maintaining the brain's structure over long periods?

I have heard around three to four minutes. There is a lot of information about this out online due to that mining accident in West Virginia, USA.

I already saw an article about it a weeks ago (But I didn't had a reference on the net)

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18925351.200

 

Basically the cels go in some sort of standby mode and stop using oxigen.

This is researched to put someonme on 'hold' do an operation and then start up again. (not having a beating heart makes operating a lot easier)

It's simular with animals in winter sleep.

 

So when does time kill you? When there is enough oxigen present to make the cels 'think' that they have to work but too litle to do the job right.