Perhaps there is a scientific explanation for what until now was considered an experience reported by those who found themselves one step away from death, but who, fortunately, managed to tell it: "My whole life passed before my eyes", some have reported. To explain this phenomenon was a study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor in the USA and published in the journal of the United States Academy of Sciences (Pnas).

In the moments immediately preceding death, the study states, the brain can have intense conscious activity producing memories.

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Near-death experiences were reported by 10-20% of cardiac arrest survivors," the researchers explain. Some patients report having observed their body from the outside, others seeing their lives pass before their eyes; Common is also the story of a tunnel at the end of which you can see a strong light. These experiences, the researchers say, "represent a biological paradox that challenges our fundamental understanding of the dying brain."

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The team filmed live with the electroencephalogram the brain activity of four patients who had suffered cardiac arrest when, with the consent of relatives, they disconnected the respiratory support that kept them alive. At the time of death, the researchers detected an explosion in gamma-wave activity, considered those associated with conscious brain activity. This activity was concentrated mainly in an area of the brain that previous studies have linked to dreams, visual hallucinations in epilepsy sufferers and altered states of consciousness. The real meaning of these waves is unknown. "We are unable to make correlations between the neural signatures of consciousness we observed and the corresponding experience in patients," warns one of the study's authors, Nusha Mihaylova. "However, the results observed are definitely exciting and provide a new framework for our understanding of hidden consciousness in dying humans," he adds.