- Many people who have had a near-death experience say things like ‘my life flashed before my eyes’.
- Now, an accidental study may offer some clues as to what happens in our brains when we die.
- The findings also raise critical questions about when exactly life ends.
For many years, people have expressed the phrase, “my whole life flashed before my eyes” after a close shave with death. Now, new data from a scientific “accident” suggests that the phenomenon might contain some truth. Our life may actually flash before our eyes as we die.
This was discovered in 2016 when a team of scientists attempted to detect and treat the seizures of an 87-year-old patient by measuring his brainwaves. Sadly, the patient suffered a fatal heart attack during this time. What the scientists did get, though, was a recording of a dying brain – for the first time ever.
Upon analysing the recording during the 30 seconds before and after the point at which a patient would typically be declared dead, they found that his rhythmic brain wave patterns followed the same patterns as during high-cognitive demanding tasks like dreaming or recalling memories.
This suggests that our brain may remain active and coordinated during, and even after, the transition to death, the scientists explained.
Their findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience in February.
A memory replay
The authors wrote: “Near-death experience (NDE) has been reported in situations where the brain transitions toward death.
“Subjective descriptions of this phenomenon are described as intense and surreal and include a panoramic life review with memory recalls, transcendental and out-of-body experiences with dreaming, hallucinations and a meditative state.”
It is hypothesised that the brain may end up generating a memory replay within this “unconscious” phase, they say, and their report, the first continuous neurological recording from the human brain in the transition phase to death, may offer clues to what happens in these final seconds of life.
Changes in brain waves
In a news release on the Frontiers blog, co-author Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, US, who organised the study, said: “Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations [brain waves], so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha, and beta oscillations.”
Brain waves are patterns of rhythmic brain activity generally present in living human brains. The different types of brain waves are involved in high-cognitive functions, such as concentrating, meditation, dreaming, memory retrieval, and information processing – just like those associated with memory flashbacks, the news release explains.
The study has made headlines worldwide and got people talking about their near-death experiences.
This happened to me. I nearly drowned as a teenager and the memories came back almost photographically
— Danielle Newnham (@daniellenewnham) February 23, 2022
Challenging scientists
“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,” said Zemmar.
The current findings, he said, challenge scientists’ understanding of when exactly life ends and generate important questions “such as those related to the timing of organ donation”.
Cautioning against broad conclusions
Zemmar told the BBC that people should be wary of drawing conclusions from one study.
“I never felt comfortable reporting [just] one case,” he said. Since 2016, he spent years looking for similar cases in the hopes it would strengthen their findings, but was unsuccessful. The only study that came close to demonstrating similar changes was a 2013 study in rats.
Zemmar continues to investigate more cases and sees the 2016 results as a source of hope.
“As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times. It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members,” he said, adding: “Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.”
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