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00:00About 60 million people die worldwide each year, on average, which is approximately 164,000 deaths
00:07per day, or 6,850 deaths per hour. Death is clearly a fact of life. But what happens next?
00:15Reports of near-death experiences are growing, and the vast majority link NDEs to a feeling of peace.
00:23So what's your verdict?
00:25Unsurprisingly, there have been countless studies into death over the years, but also,
00:32and understandably, there are various ethical considerations which make the business of
00:37analysing and measuring death a little tricky. Death comes to us all, but it's often unexpected,
00:42and even in a hospital setting, the focus at the moment of death is usually on trying to keep the
00:48dying person alive, rather than recording precisely how death unfolds for them. In
00:54February 2022, however, news broke of an accidental recording of a dying brain, which reportedly has
01:00given scientists a unique snapshot into a person's final moments. Although details of the recording
01:06were released in 2022, the event in question actually took place six years earlier in 2016.
01:13An 87-year-old patient in Canada was then being treated for epilepsy,
01:17which involved doctors taking brain scans to measure his neural activity.
01:21However, when the patient unfortunately suffered a heart attack and died during one such scan,
01:27it meant that researchers had captured a unique series of moments within his brain.
01:32Before, during, and after death. With around 900 seconds of brain activity measured in total,
01:38analysts were subsequently able to specifically pinpoint 30 seconds before and 30 seconds after
01:44the patient passed away. And what they found appeared to support a long-held theory about
01:50dying… that your life flashes before your eyes. According to the study, published in the journal
01:56Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the dying brain showed an increase in gamma activity,
02:01releasing brainwaves that are ordinarily linked to memory recall. The patterns that were recorded
02:07also relate to complex functions such as dreaming and meditation. The suggestion is,
02:12then, that when death arrives, the brain perhaps does embark on the phenomenon sometimes known as
02:17life recall. And, in the case of this particular patient, it may last for up to 30 seconds after
02:22the heart stops beating. Up until now, most of what's known about this comes from the testament
02:27of those who have had a near-death experience. The sensation of having revisited key moments
02:32from their lives is one of the most often reported by anyone describing an NDE. Scientists
02:38have also seen similar gamma surges in the brains of dying animals, such as rats, during testing.
02:44But this latest study offers a unique look at what happens to the human brain. Importantly,
02:49those behind the findings highlight that this is still just one case study, and so the results can't
02:54yet be applied to every brain. The patient had been diagnosed with epilepsy, which may have
03:00affected how his particular brain reacted to death. Similarly, the medications that he had
03:05previously taken might have had an effect, too. And, as no normal brain activity had been measured
03:10beforehand to serve as a comparison, it can't be clearly proven that any of the changes in the
03:15dying brain were that dramatically different to the patient's standard brain activity.
03:20As groundbreaking as this study appears to be, then, there are still plenty of questions and
03:24mysteries left to be solved. But, nevertheless, this study could yet serve as one of the most
03:29significant moments in our quests to understand the dying brain, and the human brain in general.
03:35For many, the 21st century is shaping up to be an incredibly important period for neuroscience.
03:40We've already made important breakthroughs regarding how we understand the senses,
03:44and how we view the importance of sleep. And, thanks to an ever-increasing mass of data,
03:50researchers can better than ever before map the brain and identify neurological processes.
03:55The human brain is still widely regarded as possibly the most complex, single structure in
04:00the entire universe… but we've also never understood it quite as well as we do today.
04:04The Human Connectome Project, or HCP, is perhaps the most ambitious research initiative relating
04:10to the brain overall. A US state-sponsored effort to map the human brain in its entirety,
04:16it was started in 2009, originally with a five-year goal for completion. So massive
04:22has the task proven to be, however, that it still hasn't been finished, thirteen years later, in 2022.
04:28The scope of the HCP has grown and grown in that time, though, so that it's now a multi-faceted,
04:34international venture. For example, while part of the project aims to better understand how
04:39Alzheimer's disease and dementia take hold, another concentrates on anxiety disorders,
04:45and how they can be identified by how the brain fires. There are also specific studies looking at
04:51the human brain at different points of its lifetime, from infancy through to old age.
04:56So, while the 2022 Dying Brain Study wasn't directly linked with the HCP,
05:00we can see how the results of it have hugely contributed to what's become an enormous field
05:05of research. But, finally, what can we do with the information that the Dying Brain Study has
05:10provided? Unlike with so many other areas, it's not as though scientists are expecting a wealth
05:15of new and supporting data to arrive anytime soon, due to the ethical considerations involved.
05:21A doctor can't just simply measure a patient's brain until they die without seriously neglecting
05:26their duty for care. And, in fact, according to some reports, one of the reasons why it took until
05:322022 for details to be released of a brain recording from 2016 is because researchers
05:38have been trying to find another, similar case in the meantime, but without any luck.
05:43This one glimpse of the dying brain is an exceptionally rare event, then. And while we
05:47might expect more examples to emerge as technology improves and evolves, for now it has set something
05:53of a new precedent. Until now, the notion of a dying person's life flashing before their eyes
05:58has perhaps been treated somewhat sceptically. No matter how many near-death experiences are
06:03reported, the apparent similarities between them are often put down to things like stress of the
06:08event, misremembering, or confirmation bias. It's said that patients may recall certain aspects of
06:14an NDE only because that's what they had previously expected would happen during one. But now there
06:20appears to be genuine, scientific findings to support the claims. The idea of life recall may
06:26no longer be so easily dismissed, as we now know that in at least this one case, the areas of the
06:32brain involved with memory recollection were particularly stimulated right at the end of life.
06:38Unfortunately, what this study cannot do is stop death in its tracks. The search for immortality
06:44goes on across all sectors of science and technology. But one consideration might be
06:49whether this latest development will lead to us managing death a little differently in the future,
06:54as the Human Connectome Project, amongst other things, seeks to better equip us to fight against
06:59various neurological conditions that can affect the human brain. If we're now getting a grip on
07:03the brain activity of death itself, then might we soon try to tackle that as well? If not to prevent
07:09it, then at least to ensure that when death does come, we can shape how it affects our final
07:15moments. Now, perhaps there is some comfort already to be found. Although this remains just
07:20one case study, and many of the conclusions to draw from it are still hypothetical, the suggestion is
07:26that when we leave this life, we do so in a dreamlike state of memory recall. For one patient,
07:32at least, the brain activity during death appeared to stimulate these kinds of reflective,
07:36recollective final thoughts. And that's why, to some extent, scientists might have discovered
07:42what happens when we die. Or, at least, they might have discovered a little bit more about
07:47one small part of it. But, of course, there is still so much about dying that remains a mystery.
07:53And there are so many metaphysical questions about the soul, spirit, mind, and body that
07:58will continue to stoke debate. It's human nature to ponder our own mortality from time to time,
08:04and perhaps it's unsurprising that there have been various efforts made to beat death over
08:08the years. But, equally, while all of that's happening, it's crucial to also make the most
08:14of life. To fully experience every moment as best we can. Because if the incredibly complex
08:20structure of the human brain tells us anything, it's that our lives are truly a unique and amazing
08:25opportunity. What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments. Check out
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