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Thursday, August 15, 2013

EEG study of rats finds burst of brain activity following cardiac arrest.

In a front-page story, the Washington Post (8/12, A1, Kim, 4.53M) reports on a study which recorded the EEG signals of “anesthetized rats after inducing cardiac arrest,” found that “after the heart had stopped,” the rats “displayed a surge of highly synchronized brain activity that had features associated with consciousness and visual activation.” According to the researchers, “the burst of electrical patterns even exceeded levels seen during a normal, awake state,” which was “the rodent version of a near-death experience.” The study, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was an effort to identify the brain activity during near-death experiences.

        The New York Times (8/13, Quenqua, Subscription Publication, 9.44M) reports the findings indicate that the rats had “highly aroused” brains following cardiac arrest. The study also found that, “activity associated with information processing was eight times what is typically found during a conscious, waking state,” and sensory processing activity “was five times as high.”

        CBS News (8/13, 5.42M) website adds that the findings are in accord with “the shared experience of nearly 20 percent of people who have survived cardiac arrest,” and reported “having internal visions and heightened perception.”

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