After death, you’re aware that you’ve died, say scientists

[FlyersFan]

The basics ... we remain conscious 20 seconds after the heart stops beating.  The brain takes 6 minutes to 'die'.  But it takes hours for the brain to stop thinking.   Are we aware of what the brain is thinking about and doing?  That can't be answered .. YET.  But it does look like people are 'trapped in their bodies' for a while after death ... aware of being dead but unable to do anything.  Rhythmic brain activity normally present in living human brains happens during the minutes after death and the parts of the brain still active are the parts that have to do with dreaming and information processing.

As a side note - I also was reading today about people who were with relatives as they died, and they saw the soul leave the body at the moment of death (when the heart stopped).  They saw light or energy waves leave the body and float off.  Those are anecdotal stories but those kind of stories go against the notion of a person trapped in a dead body for a few minutes before they lose consciousness and before the brain stops thinking.  So not sure what to think of these two types of information being opposed to each other.

After Death, You're Aware that you've died, say scientists

Scientists have studied near-death experiences (NDEs) in an attempt to gain insights into how death overcomes the brain. What they’ve found is remarkable: A surge of electricity enters the brain moments before brain death. One 2013 study, which examined electrical signals inside the heads of rats, found that the rodents entered a hyper-alert state just before death.

Even after our breathing and heartbeat stop, we remain conscious for about two to 20 seconds, Dr. Parnia says. That’s how long the cerebral cortex is thought to last without oxygen. This is the thinking and decision-making part of the brain. It’s also responsible for deciphering the information gathered from our senses.

According to Dr. Parnia, during this period, “You lose all your brain stem reflexes — your gag reflex, your pupil reflex, all that is gone.” Brain waves from the cerebral cortex soon become undetectable. Even so, it can take hours for our thinking organ to fully shut down.

According to DUCKASSIST - About six minutes after the heart stops beating, the brain essentially dies. However, there is evidence suggesting that the brain may remain active and coordinated during and even after the transition to death, possibly for hours.

Human Brain May Stay Active for Hours After Death

What this study means is that people are trapped inside their dead bodies for a while after they are declared dead. According to Parnia, people change after they have had an “after-death” experience.

He explained that the thinking region of the brain or the cerebral cortex slows down and flat lines but the brain cells are still active. When CPR is given the heart is started again and so does the brain function. He said, “If you manage to restart the heart, which is what CPR attempts to do, you'll gradually start to get the brain functioning again. The longer you're doing CPR, those brain cell death pathways are still happening — they're just happening at a slightly slower rate. 

What Happens In Our Brain When We Die

Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain and discovered rhythmic brain wave patterns around the time of death that are similar to those occurring during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation. 
 “We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating,” said Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, US, who organized the study.
 
“Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha, and beta oscillations.” Brain oscillations (more commonly known as ‘brain waves’) are patterns of rhythmic brain activity normally present in living human brains. The different types of oscillations, including gamma, are involved in high-cognitive functions, such as concentrating, dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval, information processing, and conscious perception, just like those associated with memory flashbacks