Enhanced Interplay of Neuronal Coherence and Coupling in the Dying Human Brain.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience January 1, 2022 Raul Vicente, Michael Rizzuto, Can Sarica et al.
An 87-year-old patient dying from cardiac arrest after a traumatic brain injury showed a surge in high-frequency gamma brain waves on EEG, even after blood flow to the brain stopped. Gamma power increased before cardiac arrest, and after arrest, relative gamma power remained higher than during the patient's baseline. Cross-frequency coupling showed gamma activity modulated by alpha and theta rhythms, strongest after left-sided brain suppression and after cardiac arrest. These findings suggest the dying human brain can generate coordinated neural activity during the near-death period, offering the first human evidence from a real-life clinical setting.