Pig brains partially revived four hours after death

A somewhat gruesome account from the BBC.

Pig brains partially revived four hours after death

US scientists have partially revived pig brains four hours after the animals were slaughtered.

The findings could fuel debate about the barrier between life and death, and provide a new way of researching diseases like Alzheimer's.

The study showed the death of brain cells could be halted and that some connections in the brain were restored.

However, there were no signals from the brain that would indicate awareness or consciousness.

The surprise findings challenge the idea that the brain goes into irreversible decline within minutes of the blood supply being cut off.

Of course these findings won't be a great surprise to readers of this forum, the reversibility (or partially so) of these processes is already known.

Published in Nature:
Restoration of brain circulation and cellular functions hours post-mortem

A complimentary research project.

Neurologists studying the brains of nine patients as they died have found surprising information about what happens to your brain after it dies.

According to the new study, death is marked by a final wave of electrical activity in our brains called “spreading depression.”

This “spreading depression” is a final flurry of activity that occurs in the brain before it finally shuts down, according to the experts.

The findings suggest that it could be possible to reboot the brain for as long as three to five minutes after a human heart stops beating or ceases to show signs of life.

The study, which was carried out by a team of neurologists including some from the Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, followed nine patients with devastating brain injuries who had Do Not Resuscitate orders.  

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style...32921.html
The word "study" in the article is a link.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...s-die.html

It's deja vu all over again:
https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-e...out-a-body

Slightly longer, and more thorough, popular write-up.

Slightly longer, and more thorough, popular write-up.

I'm still surprised that any of the researchers claim to be surprised. Or is it just the journalists who feign surprise?


As regards consciousness, the experiment specifically aimed to block activity of a type associated with it.

It also contains a neural activity blocker, the purpose of which is twofold.

One was to halt excitotoxicity — a process by which neurons become damaged when they are left turned on, creating a chemical imbalance, also leading to cell death. The other was to make sure the brain didn’t “wake up” and regain any level of consciousness. If any consciousness was detected via EEG, the researchers said, they would have shut down the experiment immediately. They were even standing by with anesthesia to administer to the brain in case any widespread neural activity was detected.