Does Life Flash Before Your Eyes? Brain Scan of Dying Man Suggests It's Possible (theguardian.com) 42
When Harry Stamper sets off a bomb to save planet Earth in the film Armageddon, his life flashes before his eyes. Now research has revealed tantalising clues that such recall may not be Hollywood hyperbole. From a report: An international team of scientists has reported an unexpected situation in which they recorded the brain activity of an 87-year-old patient as he died. The man had been admitted to a hospital emergency department after a fall that resulted in a bleed in the brain, and subsequently deteriorated. When doctors carried out an electroencephalography (EEG), they had discovered the patient had developed epilepsy. However, during the EEG recordings he had experienced a heart attack and died.
The team says analysis of recordings of the 30 seconds before and after the man's heart stopped beating suggest that in his final moments he experienced changes in different types of brain waves, including alpha and gamma brain waves. The study suggests that interactions between different types of brain wave continue after the blood stops flowing in the brain. But, the researchers add, it also raises an intriguing possibility. "Given that cross-coupling between alpha and gamma activity is involved in cognitive processes and memory recall in healthy subjects, it is intriguing to speculate that such activity could support a last 'recall of life' that may take place in the near-death state," the team writes in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.
However, the findings are based on the recordings from just one person, and the researchers urge caution, noting among other factors that traumatic brain injuries and white matter damage can affect brain waves, while activity of networks in the brain can be affected by anticonvulsant medication such as that given to the patient. Nonetheless, the researchers say the results could have important implications.
The team says analysis of recordings of the 30 seconds before and after the man's heart stopped beating suggest that in his final moments he experienced changes in different types of brain waves, including alpha and gamma brain waves. The study suggests that interactions between different types of brain wave continue after the blood stops flowing in the brain. But, the researchers add, it also raises an intriguing possibility. "Given that cross-coupling between alpha and gamma activity is involved in cognitive processes and memory recall in healthy subjects, it is intriguing to speculate that such activity could support a last 'recall of life' that may take place in the near-death state," the team writes in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.
However, the findings are based on the recordings from just one person, and the researchers urge caution, noting among other factors that traumatic brain injuries and white matter damage can affect brain waves, while activity of networks in the brain can be affected by anticonvulsant medication such as that given to the patient. Nonetheless, the researchers say the results could have important implications.
Of course it does. (Score:5, Interesting)
The experience that you are having right now, of reading this post, IS the experience of watching your life pass before your eyes. The present experience is one little slice of the grand narrative of your life, which is now passing before your eyes. Once it finishes, you will die.
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https://quotepark.com/quotes/1... [quotepark.com]
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I bet I read that at some point, and then forgot I read it. Thank you for pointing out the proper source.
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Yes, my life has always flashed before my eyes, at a 1:1 ratio.
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A pro tip (Score:5, Insightful)
* Consult your doctor about the definition of "soon". Our medicos pressed to get one done right away (within hours, in her case).
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I've just been through this with my mother (not the death part); if your elderly folks hit their heads, such as after a fall, getting a brain scan soon* is important. Apparently about 10% have brain swelling which requires immediate attention.
* Consult your doctor about the definition of "soon". Our medicos pressed to get one done right away (within hours, in her case).
Not just the elderly. Young healthy folks taking a solid hit to the head and then dying of a brain bleed several hours later is sadly far from uncommon.
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(sigh) (Score:2)
How much of that is going to be just reading /. ?
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I think the answer to that would be up to you.
goatse (Score:1)
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Re: goatse (Score:1)
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Yeah, that about sums it up.
Regular Russia seems to have kept up the tradition.
This needs to get settled (Score:2)
I'm sure the Chinese could find some Uyghurs to volunteer for the study.
Bad science (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that the brain activity increased doesn't mean that it was related to any flashback events. In fact, the article makes it clear that these sort of brain waves relate to multiple functions, and then the author goes on to assume it was a flashback.
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It's almost as though you're not meant to use the human body outside of its recommended operating conditions.
But seriously though, when I close my eyes, press on my eyelids, and see magical colours and patterns, that must be god sending me secret messages!!!
Sh... (Score:4)
Have I cleared my browsing history...?!
this doesn't resemble the article I read earlier (Score:3)
The previous article said that they conducted the EEG after he died. Fifteen minutes later.
With a sample size of one (1), this is meaningless gibberish, anyway.
mind reading en mort (Score:1)
In the near future, everyone will have their brain scanned after death. This will detect whether the person committed any unsolved or undetected crimes in life. Fines will be levied against the person's estate, or in cases where they are destitute, their family. Where the family is also unable to pay these fines, family members wi be transferred to labour camps to work off their debts.
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Congrats. You just wrote the synopsis of a dystopian sci-fi novel. Now write the story and make your millions so you can pay your fines after you die.
My final dying thought... (Score:2)
Seems a waste of time. (Score:1)
Are these last moments experienced as a frantic struggle to search desperately for any means to survive? Is this conscious in the sense of fore-brain activity or is it more animalistic?
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If I were simply thinking pragmatically, it would be a great way to get memories replicated to other parts of the brain in case of brain damage. Death might be imminent, but any action that your body takes would be related to ultimately still surviving. A stroke would be an example where an oxygen deprived brain can get severely damaged in one area, but the rest of the brain may yet survive - it's possible a mechanism like this could salvage some data from the damaged part of the brain by rapidly recallin
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I prefer to view the system as a complex signal processor. Rather that obeying logical rules such as if (death == imminent) emergency_backup(); a deeper analysis of how the system from the context of signal processing could be forced into such a state. In that sense if (hormone > threshold) emergency_backup();
This is a very plausible take in my opinion as a combination of stress hormones does trigger all sorts of high activity related to memory storage/retri
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That's not how it goes. Our brains don't RAID stuff or do backups.
Neither our brains nor our bodies give a flying shit about our masturbation memories from back in high-school. Or trivialities like our names. Or names of other things.
Or that hard learned skill not to shit our pants whenever the lower part of our colon gets full.
Or anything else that happened to be stored in the memory for a while.
That's all just data files. And there are no system files.
OS running on the hardware is the hardware itself - an
Re: Seems a waste of time. (Score:2)
Fortunately we will all get a chance to see for ourselves.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to publish the results.
I suspect the outcome is as varied as people are.
My old VCR did that too. (Score:3)
Yes, I think this is the most plausible explanation of what I had seen. Based in this research.
Only if your brain still supports Flash though (Score:2)
Adobe® has dropped support, so you're on your own. lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The eye holding its last image after death? (Score:3)
Can we still smirk at that idea, or is nothing safe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Wait, has that been used in cyberpunk as an homage, and having it work because the eye was digital, and there was a buffer or other record?
terrific, (Score:1)
I'll get dumped 20 times again. joy
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Be optimistic, you may still get dumped a few more times before you die.
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Grounddump Day
Science! (Score:2)
1. Perform experiment with sample space of one
2. Publish!
3. Watch the grants roll in
Brainstorm (Score:2)
Brainstorm is an early 80's movie, Natalie Wood's last if I recall correctly. Has an interesting take on this idea, that was followed up by other movies like Strange Days. Worth a look if you can find it.
Pincher Martin (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincher_Martin [wikipedia.org]
This has been explained before (Score:1)
There was a short lived magazine by National Geo called "National Geographic Adventure". One of the first issues had an article by a sports psychologist where he analyzed life and death scenarios. His theory ties in with other behavioral psychology and even Piaget's theories.
Essentially we all know the analogy of the brain as a computer. What he asserted is that when you're young, you of course know little and your brain is busy cataloging the world and experiences. That's why when you're young time see