He also takes comfort in the distant possibility that our loved ones might be replaying their fondest memories when they leave us. In the six years since the initial discovery in 2016, the team has worked hard to find similar cases that involved the recording of human brain deaths – but to no avail.ĭespite the lack of resources, Zemmar is hopeful to find other cases in the future. "I never felt comfortable to report one case," Zemmar said. Coming to a concrete conclusion about the possibility of flashbacks would be extremely premature. His brain had also been bleeding and swollen, which further complicates things when looking at the recordings.Īdditionally, this has so far been the only recorded death of a human brain. The first of which, is the fact that he had epilepsy. There are multiple things we have to consider with the 87-year-old patient. Some people's brains may only be filled with bad memories.īut as with all discoveries of this nature, Zemmar thinks it's best we take the findings with a grain of salt. Of course, this totally depends on the person having said flashback. "If I were to jump to the philosophical realm, I would speculate that if the brain did a flashback, it would probably like to remind you of good things, rather than the bad things," he said. Are these profound flashbacks real?Īccording to Zemmar, it's virtually impossible to tell. "This was actually totally by chance, we did not plan to do this experiment or record these signals," Zemmar told the BBC. This also makes it the first-ever recording of a dying human brain, albeit accidental. In other words, during the moments leading up to the man's death, his life effectively 'flashed' before his eyes, with other researchers involved in the study saying the brain activity resembled patterns observed during a state of dreaming, concentration, or meditation. "Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences." At the time of the discovery, he was a neurosurgeon at the University of Toronto, Canada. "Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations," said senior researcher Ajmal Zemmar of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. What do you imagine death to be like? IMAGE: Cris Trung / Unsplash They found that in the 30 seconds before and after the man's heart stopped beating, the brain acted very unusually. What the researchers observed in the recording (900 seconds long) is rather fascinating, and could provide further insight into what happens when we die. However, the elderly man suddenly suffered a fatal heart attack while still in the MRI machine. It was supposed to be a routine scan in which the team used continuous electroencephalography (EEG) to detect seizures that commonly occur in epilepsy patients. They wound up accidentally recording what happens during the moment of a human brain's death. IMAGE: Frontiers In Ageing Neuroscienceīack in 2016, a team of researchers set out to scan the brainwaves of an 87-year-old man with epilepsy. However, in most cases, this would be deemed medically unethical – making a person spend the final moments of their life inside an MRI machine. After all, a person on the verge of death would literally have to get their brain scanned as they breathe their last breaths. We've all heard the 'myth' about life literally flashing before your eyes when you encounter a near-death experience (NDE), or when a person does actually die.īut there's never been a way to actually support that theory.
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