American scientists observed seizures in brain activity in two dying patients who were in a coma.
People who are close to death often claim that they saw a light at the end of a tunnel, that they felt as if they were floating on top of their bodies, or that they relived their lives before their eyes.
The intersection of these testimonies, and the fact that they come from people of diverse backgrounds and origins, suggests a possible biological mechanism that remains a mystery to scientists.
in An article I published At the beginning of the month, the National Academy of Sciences in the United States (PNAS), researchers at the University of Michigan, USA, observed seizures in brain activity in two dying patients who were in a coma.
The study’s lead author, Jimo Borjigin, told AFP that this study is not the first of its kind, but it is “more detailed than ever before”.
The scientists studied the records of four patients who died of cardiac arrest at the moment their brain activity was being measured by an electroencephalography (EEG) machine. These people were in a coma, and their doctors decided to stop treatment because they could not be saved.
When they were removed from life support, two of them (a 24-year-old woman and a 77-year-old woman) experienced an increase in heart rate. Brain activity also showed a sudden rise in gamma waves associated with consciousness, in a phenomenon previously monitored by previous studies.
The new study goes even further, with the researchers focusing on a larger part of the brain that was stimulated, the posterior region associated with consciousness.
“If this part of the brain is stimulated, it means that the patient sees something, can hear something, and is likely to feel sensations outside the body,” explained Jimo Borjegin, adding that this area was “inflamed.”
But scientists aren’t sure why the other two patients didn’t show these signs. According to Jimo Borjegin, their seizure history may have an impact in this regard.
The researchers cautioned that because the study was conducted on a very small sample, general conclusions cannot be drawn. Since the patients were dead, it would never be known whether they had visions or not.
