New study suggests life may actually flash before your eyes at the time of death

Published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the conclusions of the study revealed fascinating insights

New Delhi | March 13, 2022 11:25 AM IST

2 min read

What happens after we die? Find an answer here. (Source: Representative Image/Pexels)

A new scientific study, led by a Canada based team, suggested that life may actually flash before our eyes on death.

Published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the conclusions of the study revealed fascinating insights into one of the most highly debated topics of our times–do we really recall memories as we die?

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The team of scientists had initially set out to measure the brainwaves of an 87-year-old patient who had developed epilepsy. He unexpectedly died during the neurological recording after suffering from a fatal heart attack, thereby giving them a recording of a dying brain.

The finding of the study were accidental in nature. (Source: Representative image/Pexels)

The neurological recording revealed that in the 30 seconds before and after death, the man’s brain waves followed the same patterns as dreaming or recalling memories.

Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a co-author of the study and a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville told BBC, “Thirty seconds before the patient’s heart stopped supplying blood to the brain, his brainwaves followed the same patterns as when we carry out high-cognitive demanding tasks, like concentrating, dreaming or recalling memories.”

He went on to add, “It continued 30 seconds after the patient’s heart stopped beating — the point at which a patient is typically declared dead. This could possibly be a last recall of memories that we’ve experienced in life, and they replay through our brain in the last seconds before we die.”

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The BBC report stated that Dr Zemmar and his team have warned people about the fact that broad conclusions can’t be drawn from a study of one. “The fact that the patient was epileptic, with a bleeding and swollen brain, complicates things further,” he was quoted as saying.