Near-Death Experiences And The Sudden Recall Of Life Events, Is There A Connection?

People who have survived near-death experiences frequently describe extraordinary events, such as floating outside of their bodies, meeting loved ones who have passed away, or instantly recalling significant events from their lives.

These stories all have a lot in common and come from people with different cultural backgrounds, which suggests a biological mechanism that has not yet been fully understood by science. Here's what new research suggests now.

Does life flash before your eyes before you die?

Pixabay

Researchers from the University of Michigan discovered evidence of spikes in brain activity connected to awareness in two terminally ill patients in a new study that was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

Although not the first study of its kind, senior author Jimo Borjigin, whose lab is devoted to understanding the neurological underpinnings of consciousness, told AFP that the new research stands out because it is detailed in a way "that has never been done before."

The group reviewed the medical files of four patients who experienced cardiac arrest while receiving electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring. After it was decided that all four couldn't be saved by medical intervention, they all slipped into comas and were taken off life support.

Two of the four patients, a 24-year-old woman and a 77-year-old woman, saw increases in heart rates as well as spikes in the gamma frequency of brain waves, the fastest type of brain activity that is linked to awareness.

Earlier research has also discovered increases in gamma waves in some individuals close to the time of death, including a well-known publication about an 87-year-old man who died after a fall that was published in 2022.

The research studied brain activities closely at the time of death

AP

The University of Michigan article went further by looking more closely at which areas of the brain lit up, with the activity discovered in the "posterior cortical hot zone," made up of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, which are linked to changes in consciousness.

"If this part of the brain lights up, that means the patient is seeing something, can hear something, and might feel sensations out of the body," said Borjigin, adding that the area was "on fire."

The strength of the study was aided by second-by-second monitoring of the patient's heart and brain activity throughout the final few hours of life. Although Borjigin theorised that the patients' prior seizure histories may have somehow primed their brains, it is unclear why two of the patients showed these potential "covert consciousness" symptoms while the other two did not. Because of the tiny sample size, the authors advised against drawing broad conclusions.

Furthermore, since the patients did not survive to tell the tale, it is impossible to confirm that they actually experienced any visions. In order to increase the likelihood that some will actually live, Borjigin plans to gather information on hundreds more people in the future. Making an experiment that mimics a near-death experience and monitoring the patient in a lab setting could be one way to do this.

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