Brain activity before death: Study pinpoints a 'hot zone' surge

A small study out of the United States offers evidence that an area of the brain associated with consciousness can experience a wave of activity for some people right before they die.

A small study out of the United States offers evidence that an area of the brain associated with consciousness can experience a wave of activity for some people right before they die.

The study from the University of Michigan, published May 1 in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, recorded the brain activity of four comatose patients who died from cardiac arrest while in hospital and under EEG, or electroencephalogram, monitoring.

With their families' permission, the patients were removed from life support once it was determined that they were beyond medical help.

Of the four patients, two showed an increased heart rate and a surge of gamma wave activity, which the researchers say is considered the fastest brain activity and associated with consciousness.

Those two patients had previous reports of seizures but experienced none in the hour before their deaths.

The other two, meanwhile, showed no similar increase in heart rate or gamma activity in the brain.

"That peak of activity is suggestive that there's something going on that would be an experience that a person has as they pass away," CTV science and technology specialist Dan Riskin told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.