Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
There have been countless stories over the years of people who have gone through near-death experiences, ranging from tales of floating above their own hospital beds to traveling towards a heavenly bright light, but are these simply due to chemical changes in the body?
That’s what the authors of a new study, currently available online and scheduled for publication in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) argue – specifically, that oxygen deprivation causes changes in the brain that are interpreted as near-death experiences.
Lack of oxygen causes brainstorm
As Discovery News reported on Friday, the authors of the study induced anoxia (total depletion of oxygen levels) in rats, then examined the response of neurotransmitters, changes in electrical activity in heart and brain activity, and brain-heart connectivity in those rodents.
“We performed continuous electrocardiography and electroencephalography in rats undergoing experimental asphyxia, and analyzed cortical release of core neurotransmitters, changes in brain and heart electrical activity, and brain-heart connectivity,” wrote experts at the University of Michigan Departments of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Neurology, and Neuroscience Graduate Program and the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care.
“Asphyxia stimulates a robust and sustained increase of functional and effective cortical connectivity, an immediate increase in cortical release of a large set of neurotransmitters, and a delayed activation of corticocardiac functional and effective connectivity that persists until the onset of ventricular fibrillation,” they added. “These results demonstrate that asphyxia activates a brainstorm, which accelerates premature death of the heart and the brain.”
In other words, in the moment prior to death, the brain activity increases and can actually speed cardiac demise, MedicalDaily.com explained. This same flurry of mental liveliness most likely is also the foundation of out-of-body or spiritual near death experiences, the authors claim.
In the 30-second period after the hearts of the asphyxiated rats stopped beating, the UM research team witnessed an immediate release of more than a dozen neurochemicals, as well as a spike in the high-frequency brainwaves known as gamma oscillations, the website added. This appeared to trigger a connection between the heart and brain, and the authors believe that similar increases in brain activity levels could happen in humans during their near-death experiences.
Such activity, the UM researchers propose, leads to a heightened state of consciousness that can result in the out-of-body or spiritual visions experienced by cardiac arrest survivors. Using drugs to create a blockade of the brain-heart connections allowed them to significantly delay the state of ventricular fibrillation (which prevents the lower chambers of the heart from pumping) and may improve the chances of survival in patients experiencing a heart attack.
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