After a Heart Stops, the Brain Lives for Another 7 Minutes and Can Recall Memories (3 photos)

A neurosurgeon has revealed what happens to our brain after death. Dr. Ajmal Zemmar's research shows that the brain is programmed to play back the most memorable moments in the last minutes of life.





The discovery was made by accident. An 87-year-old patient suffering from epilepsy was undergoing brain monitoring to track seizures. However, during the recording, the man suffered a heart attack and died.

For the first time in history, scientists were able to track the activity of a human brain that is on the verge of death.

Dr. Zemmar of the University of Louisville shared, "We saw changes in a specific range of neural oscillations both immediately before and immediately after cardiac arrest."



And these patterns were similar to those seen during memory recall.

Brain oscillations (brain waves) are involved in complex cognitive functions such as concentration, sleep, meditation, memory retrieval, information processing, and conscious perception.

"By generating oscillations, the brain can recreate the last memories of significant events in our lives, similar to what happens in near-death experiences," Zemmar says.



"These findings challenge our understanding of when life ends and raise important questions, such as those around organ donation"

"We all experience the loss of a loved one at some point in our lives. And we will all, unfortunately, experience death one day. So there is certainly a lot of interest in this topic."

He added: "When patients die, you have to break bad news to their families. I think this finding is somewhat reassuring. If we know that the person was remembering pleasant memories at the time of death, that is a bit of comfort."