(CBC News)Īfter the patient's heart stopped working, the EEG recording showed a burst of gamma activity associated with dreaming, meditation and memory recall. "We didn't know at the time, but in hindsight, we realized that this left us with the first ever recording of the dying human brain," Zemmar said.Īn electroencephalogram (EEG) is a brain wave monitoring device attached to the patient's scalp. The patient went into cardiac arrest mid-treatment, with the EEG monitor still running as he died. The patient initially underwent surgery for a subdural hematoma - a build up of blood between the skull and the brain. Zemmar said he started having seizures a few days after surgery, so the team attached an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor his brain and oversee his seizures. The team of doctors came upon the brain scan unexpectedly, according to Zemmar. The study, published Feb. 22 in Frontiers in Aging Science, has since received international attention.Īmid the excitement and interest, scientists are careful to point out the patient's brainwave patterns do not definitively indicate memory recall. Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon in Louisville, Ky., and one of the study's co-authors who was a resident at VGH during the time. "That left us with a lot of excitement but also a lot of questions," said Dr. The scan of an 87 year-old epilepsy patient who died in Vancouver General Hospital in 2016 revealed a surge of brain activity 30 seconds after his heart stopped beating, with brainwave patterns similar to higher cognitive functions like dreaming and memory recollection. In a recently published study, a team of doctors said it managed to capture a recording of a dying human brain for the first time.
could challenge our understanding of what happens during the final moments of life.
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