Washington: A new study on animals has showed high electrical activity in the brain after clinical death.
The near-death experience reported by cardiac arrest survivors worldwide may be grounded in science, according to research at the University of Michigan Health System.
Whether and how the dying brain is capable of generating conscious activity has been vigorously debated.
But, a U-M study showed shortly after clinical death, in which the heart stops beating and blood stops flowing to the brain, rats display brain activity patterns characteristic of conscious perception.
"This study, performed in animals, is the first dealing with what happens to the neurophysiological state of the dying brain," lead study author Jimo Borjigin, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology and associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School, said.
"It will form the foundation for future human studies investigating mental experiences occurring in the dying brain, including seeing light during cardiac arrest," she said.
Approximately 20 percent of cardiac arrest survivors report having had a near-death experience during clinical death.
These visions and perceptions have been called "realer than real," according to previous research, but it remains unclear whether the brain is capable of such activity after cardiac arrest.
"We reasoned that if near-death experience stems from brain activity, neural correlates of consciousness should be identifiable in humans or animals even after the cessation of cerebral blood flow," she said.
The study is published in PNAS Early Edition.
ANI
