Notes

after you die your brain continues to
work for more than ten minutes our
current understanding of death is very
simple we consider people dead the
moment their hearts stop working the
respiratory and circulatory systems are
no longer functioning the body has shut
down and life ceases to be but there's
more to it than that despite having a
functionally dead heart your brain will
continue to work in fact it might be the
last part of your body to die moments
before death your brain receives the
surge of electricity no one knows why it
happens it also begins to lose oxygen
even after your breathing and heartbeat
stop you are still conscious for about 2
to 20 seconds this is because the
cerebral cortex can last without oxygen
this part of the brain is responsible
for thinking and decision-making it is
also responsible for converting the
information gathered by our senses into
actions despite this activity in the
cerebral cortex you lose all reflexive
and muscular ability before death at
this moment the brain is experiencing
its last minutes brain cells are
activating chemical pathways that would
lead to their ultimate death
a pump of oxygen is what stands between
you and your final moment if someone
manages to restart your heart through
CPR or life-support your brain will
receive enough oxygen to wake up again
if there is no oxygen your brain begins
to surrender most of your brain is now
dead but there's one final place that
doesn't give up so easily this is the
memory center which stores the most
emotional memories you've ever
experienced this region in your brain is
not susceptible to blood loss even
during serious injuries and it's the
last part of your brain to shut down
before shutting down the memory center
of flashes moments from your life right
before your eyes
when doctors turned off life support for
terminal patients declared clinically
dead the brain appeared to be active for
more than 10 minutes and when they
scanned electroencephalographic EEG
recordings in these individuals they
found striking differences between each
one of them this probably means that
every one of us will go through a unique
experience when we die
two days after death more than 1,000
genes are still working in the body some
of these genes are highly active and
they have very important functions
stimulating inflammation firing up the
immune system and counteracting stress
but some of these genes are only
switched on during embryonic development
is it possible that the body is trying
to save itself from imminent death by
reverting to a cellular stage some of
these however promote cancer growth why
would the body initiate cancer growth
even two days after death what is the
purpose of promoting cancer in a dead
body mysterious indeed it is possible
that our understanding of death is false
is it ethical to pronounce people dead
but some parts of their body are still
working and what does this mean for
those whose organs are donated
immediately after death should we be
more careful when conducting autopsies
on dead bodies only time and more
research will reveal this to us