When the heart stops beating, what happens in the brain? This has always been an unsolved mystery. According to the British "Daily Mail" report, a new study in Germany found that 5 minutes after the heart stopped, the brain cells are still working. Although the body has died, consciousness may still remain for a long time.
In the new study, Dr. Kings Dreyer and his team of neurologists from the Medical University of Berlin, Germany, continuously monitored changes in brain signals during the course of the deaths of nine patients. These patients were from Berlin, Germany and Cincinnati, USA. The brain injury was pronounced by the doctor to be unable to wake up.
The researchers implanted electrodes in the brains of dying patients to reveal the mechanism of death and changes in brain activity during death. It was found that even if one person's heart had stopped beating for 5 minutes, other organs of the body had stopped showing signs of life. The brain cells or nerve cells may still play a role. This shows that the duration of brain consciousness after death can be as long as 5 minutes. The results of the study are published in the American Journal of Neurology.
When Dr. Dreer explained the process of human death, he said that once blood flow stopped, the cells would have been unable to obtain energy and oxygen. However, when this happens, brain cells use their stored energy before undergoing complete apoptosis. It can survive for a few minutes. Since then, the mechanism by which neurons are used to maintain ion separation begins to fail. This process is called 'diffusion inhibition'. It is marked by hyperactivity in nerve cells, followed by sudden silence. However, The researchers found that this silence is merely a countdown to the final death, and may be reversed over a period of time.
One of the members of the research team, Dr. Jed Hartings of the Medical School of the University of Cincinnati in the United States, said that so far there has been no specific method for diagnosing brain death, and there is no way to be sure that all consciousness is completely lost. Although this new research result is not Will have a direct impact on patient care, but it will play an important role in the future improvement of the diagnosis and treatment process, such as the development of cardiac arrest and stroke rescue programs and treatment measures.
