The brain is an absolutely incredible organ. There’s still a lot to learn about it, and it seems like every day science finds out something new about its mysterious capabilities.
Now, new research from the NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City suggests that the human brain would still be functioning after the heart stops.
Dr. Sam Parnia, director of intensive care and resuscitation research, is leading the study and has spent years studying the human brain.
His work represents some of the largest research when it comes to near-death experiences, and he is now investigating how the brain works after death.
Dr. Parnia and his team talked to doctors, nurses, and patients who have ever experienced cardiac arrest and found that patients whose hearts stopped still maintained some brain function even after being pronounced dead.
Apparently, everything would have to do with the moment when the heart stops beating.
“Technically speaking, a person is pronounced dead when their heart stops. However, some functions of his body, such as brain function, do not stop until after a while », said Dr. Parnia.
After speaking with patients, Parnia and her team discovered that many of them could remember conversations that the doctors and nurses kept even after his heart stopped beating.
“There were patients who were able to describe what the doctors did and the nurses. They claimed to recall entire conversations and visual memories of what was happening that they might not otherwise know.”
With this new research, Dr. Parnia suggests that not only does the brain function after death, but a person can know that he died because your brain is still working after your heart stops.
“We are trying to understand what exactly people experience when they go through death because we understand that this will reflect the universal experience that we will all have when we die,” he said.
