An American study provides the beginnings of an explanation of the origin of sensations and visions felt during a near-death experience. The brain would deliver a last standstill during the first seconds of cardiac arrest.
Traveling along a tunnel, seeing intense light, meeting with dead people or “Beings of light”, but also time-lapse recalling one’s own existence, this is how people who have had a near death experience (NDE) describe. This term actually refers to a set of “visions” and “sensations” resulting from clinical death caused by insufficient blood supply to the brain during cardiac arrest. This phenomenon, which is partly unknown to scientists, has yet to know a major advance in its understanding. A new experiment carried out on rats, by researchers at the University of Michigan and described in the PNAS Early Edition, indeed brings new elements that can explain NDEs. A last standstill of the brain, immediately after clinical death, would be the most plausible explanation.
This team of American researchers worked on anesthetized rats in cardiac arrest. After recording the electroencephalogram (EEG) of nine rodents, they found that during the first 30 seconds after cardiac arrest, the brains of all rats showed a generalized and transient increase in activity. The latter was also highly synchronized and characteristic of conscious perception. Conclusion of George Mashour, lead author of the study, “This study suggests that the brain is able to produce well-organized electrical activity during the early phase of clinical death. “
So, is this the end of the NDE mystery? Not quite. Because, George Mashour, cautious, does not affirm that this experiment on the rats is transposable to the man.
However, the researcher points out in this research that, “normally”, the brain is supposed to be inactive during cardiac arrest. The activity recorded here in rats, especially in areas of consciousness and vision, could therefore partly explain certain manifestations of NDEs.
In conclusion, the scientist believes that these results provide, “a scientific framework to study the near-death experiences reported by many survivors of cardiac arrest.” The mystery is therefore not quite resolved …
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