Abstract
Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and postmortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, mismatch negativity (MMN), and auditory brainstem response (ABR). In this study, we present HB data to demonstrate the feasibility of a sparse electrode EEG configuration to capture well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.
Highlights
Over the past several decades, a combination of groundbreaking technological advances and increasingly sophisticated analytic strategies have made it possible to deploy more nuanced assessments of minimally conscious states in deeply comatose and peri-mortem patients (Wijnen et al, 2007; Kroeger et al, 2013; Di Perri et al, 2014; Gosseries et al, 2014)
We demonstrated the feasibility that a sparse electrode EEG configuration is capable of capturing well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions
We presented EEG data on individuals who were recognized by Tibetan lay, medical, and religious specialists in India as being in the postmortem state called tukdam
Summary
Over the past several decades, a combination of groundbreaking technological advances and increasingly sophisticated analytic strategies have made it possible to deploy more nuanced assessments of minimally conscious states in deeply comatose and peri-mortem patients (Wijnen et al, 2007; Kroeger et al, 2013; Di Perri et al, 2014; Gosseries et al, 2014) These same advances raise questions about conventional notions of personal identity, compound ethical issues surrounding artificial life support and organ donation, and increasingly complicate our understanding of the boundary between life and death (Lock, 1996, 2002a; Adams et al, 2009). Close and socio-culturally informed examination of neural peri-mortem processes holds increasing scientific, cultural, and ethical importance
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