Mysterious brain activity detected in people just before they die

The question of what happens when we die has been asked for centuries, but now scientists may be a step closer after discovering a mysterious surge in brain activity during the dying process.

Experts from the University of Michigan observed a surge in the brain activity of two individuals as they died – similar to the brain activity that has been witnessed in animals whose hearts have stopped.

It is extremely rare for scientists to monitor the exact moment a human being dies. Last year, in 2022, was the first time brain waves were recorded in this way.

This was possible after an 87-year-old patient developed seizures after surgery and sadly their condition deteriorated. Because of their do-not-resuscitate order, the patient's family allowed scientists to record their brain's electrical activity.

They observed a large spike in gamma waves and other frequencies for 900 seconds.

Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville explained: “We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating.

“Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha and beta oscillations.”

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A new study has observed similar activity in two of four human beings that were taken off life support. Scientists studying the phenomena hypothesise that this activity, which is far above our brain activity when we are awake, may be linked to anecdotal reports from those who have had near-death experiences.

The gamma wave surge was seen in an area of the brain that is widely considered a “hot zone” for consciousness and bares similar patterns to when one is dreaming, or when patients having a seizure report visual hallucinations or out-of-body experiences.

However, researchers pointed out: “Although the marked activation of the posterior hot zone in the dying brain is suggestive of elevated conscious processing in these patients, it does not demonstrate it.”

While it doesn’t wholly prove their hypothesis, the researchers hope that there will be more learning to be done with each new case recorded.

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