Near-death study: Brains explode with activity as heart stops

[IDemo]

Source: sfgate

“Near-death experiences” or the sudden rush of a feeling of peace, seeing dead relatives/angels, a light at the end of a tunnel … These experiences – if the explosion of activity in brains of rats as they die is any indication – might just be physical noise.

In a new study released this week – “Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain” – researchers found that just as a rat’s heart stops for the last time, its brain lights up like a Christmas tree in a power surge.

“In this study,” the researchers write, “we performed continuous electroencephalography in rats undergoing experimental cardiac arrest and analyzed changes in power density, coherence, directed connectivity, and cross-frequency coupling. We identified a transient surge of synchronous gamma oscillations that occurred within the first 30 s after cardiac arrest and preceded isoelectric electroencephalogram.”

In other words, they killed the rats and just as their hearts beat for the last time their brains looked like hyperactive consciousness, or all the signs of conscious brain activity at a high intensity.

Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2013/08/13/near-death-study-brains-explode-with-activity-as-heart-stops/