How Long Can Someone Hear After They Die
Science
Even later dying loved ones become unresponsive they tin all the same hear you: UBC Study
New study by Victoria-raised scientist monitored the encephalon activity of dying patients in their final moments
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An innovative study into the terminal moments of BC hospice patients has shown that, even when a dying person has lost all power to move or communicate, they may notwithstanding be able to hear and sympathize their surroundings.
The revelation "lends some credence to the advice that loved ones should go along talking to a dying relative as long as possible," concludes the study, simply published in Nature by Victoria-raised UBC researcher Elizabeth Blundon.
Conducted over 2 years at a Vancouver-area hospice, the study involved monitoring the brain activity of terminally ill patients in their final days.
Participants, well-nigh of whom were dying of cancer, were fitted with an EEG cap; essentially a bathing cap wired with electrodes that record the electrical signals emitted by a human brain. They were and so played a serial of tone patterns and asked to listen for whatsoever tones that sounded out of place.
The sound test was performed twice; once when the patients first entered hospice and were yet relatively conscious, and once more when they had reached a state researchers referred to as "actively dying." This latter state was defined as "the hours to days preceding imminent death during which time the patient's physiologic functions wane."
On the first exam, participants were asked to click a mouse whenever they heard an out-of-identify tone pattern. On the second test, the now-unresponsive patient was merely asked to concentrate on the job as much every bit was possible.
When the dying patient'southward EEG data was compared both against their first test and the tests of a healthy control group, they appeared to prove a brain that was still performance and able to concentrate.
For years, information technology'south been a rule of thumb among healthcare circles that a dying patient volition still retain the power to hear and understand their surroundings even after all other senses have shut downward. "Never assume the person is unable to hear yous," advises the British organization Dying Matters. "Talk as if they tin can hear you, fifty-fifty if they appear to be unconscious or restless."
But thus far, some of the just testify to this has come from patients who have undergone near-death experiences, unremarkably after a cardiac arrest. While most people who are brought dorsum from the brink of expiry retain no memories of it, about ten% report having been enlightened of their environs during the experience, up to and including hearing their own pronouncement of death.
Participants for the UBC study all gave explicit written consent to be tested fifty-fifty after they had lost all motor control. Although in one case, a family pulled their consent for the study after their family member had entered the "actively dying" state. In addition, sometimes patients died before the final test could be administered or, more than happily, they got improve.
In all, these limitations meant that just 4 patients were able to successfully undergo tests in both a responsive and an unresponsive country. With such a pocket-size sample size, it's by no means a definitive determination that humans retain total consciousness in their final moments, merely the study provides some of the nearly compelling evidence all the same of a twilight period betwixt unresponsiveness and death in which the encephalon continues to function.
The study adds to a growing body of testify showing that unresponsive patients retain fashion more conscious brain activity than was previously suspected. In recent years, studies accept discovered that patients in a "vegetative" (now known as an "unresponsive wakefulness") state may in fact retain full consciousness and awareness of their surroundings.
Every bit the UBC report concludes, "either when severely damaged or even when about expiry, some brains can evidence performance in some systems."
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Source: https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/ubc-study-hearing-death
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