What is the “death wave” discovered in the brain by a French team?

A team of researchers has managed to isolate a specific brain wave, a sort of deep “startle” that occurs when the brain’s electrical activity reduces when it is deprived of oxygen.

Its name seems disastrous, however, “the wave of death” could represent a notable advance for patients… who are still alive. Scientists from the Paris Brain Institute who analyzed brain activity at the time of death discovered the existence of a specific wave, which would occur during prolonged oxygen deprivation. The results of their study, spotted by Futura Scienceswere published in the revue Neurobiology of Disease.

Until now, scientists had established that at the moment of death, when the brain was deprived of oxygen, it triggered a series of electrical events, drastically reducing its activity until it stopped altogether. But new research highlights the existence of a “high amplitude” wave, a sort of burst of activity which would come from the deep layers of the cortex and pass through the brain like a wave. According to researchers, this burst could be the one that “turns off” the brain at the time of death

Protect essential brain functions

However, contrary to what its name suggests, this discovery represents hope for a new form of care for people in intensive care. Indeed, according to researchers, if the brain is reoxygenated in time at the time of this “death wave”, brain activity could resume and mark the start of possible recovery.

This is an advance in the perception that doctors had until now of brain shutdown, which would be more of an evolutionary and potentially reversible process than a clear and definitive end, and opens the way to new treatments and targeted interventions that could protect certain essential brain functions in the event of oxygen deprivation.

The discovery of an electrical burst in the brain also opens a path of understanding “near death” experiences reported by several patients.