.fperrywilson comments on a fascinating study that shines a light on the electrochemistry of the dying brain.
Prior to the withdrawal of life support, the brain electrical signals looked like this:What you see is the EEG power at various frequencies, with red being higher. All the red was down at the low frequencies. Consciousness, at least as we understand it, is a higher-frequency phenomenon.
Right after the breathing tube was removed, the power didn't change too much, but you can see some increased activity at the higher frequencies.But in two of the four patients, something really surprising happened. Watch what happens as the brain gets closer and closer to death.This spike in power occurred in the somatosensory cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, areas that are associated with conscious experience.
But I know what you're thinking. This is a brain that is not receiving oxygen. Cells are going to become disordered quickly and start firing randomly — a last gasp, so to speak, before the end. Meaningless noise.Those high-frequency power surges increased connectivity in thean area of the brain many researchers feel is necessary for conscious perception.
But second, we must realize that although the brains of these individuals, in their last moments, appeared to be acting in a way that conscious brains act, we have no way of knowing if the patients were truly having a conscious experience. As I said, all the patients in the study died. Short of those metaphysics I alluded to earlier, we will have no way to ask them how they experienced their final moments.
Let's be clear: This study doesn't answer the question of what happens when we die. It says nothing about life after death or the existence or persistence of the soul. But what it does do is shed light on an incredibly difficult problem in neuroscience: the problem of consciousness.
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