Within 30 seconds of cardiac arrest, the brain stops functioning and we are clinically dead. But studies show that consciousness continues to function for another 3 minutes .
During this time, the brain floods us with memories from our past in an attempt to make us cling to life and push us to react. This mechanism is the basis of near-death experiences .
Southampton University has dedicated a study to near-death experiences, in particular to what is called out-of-body (literally «out of the body», or the sensation that one's soul detaches from the body and observes the room from above). To do so, it took into consideration 2060 patients from 15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, the USA and Austria.
Among the various conclusions, it was found that as soon as the heart stops beating, a part of the brain continues to function for a few minutes, giving us awareness of what is happening around us: and this explains the "near-death experience".
If the heart stops pumping blood, the first emotion that comes to mind is fear . This is the danger signal that the brain tries to give us. At this point, the thalamus sends impulses to the entire body to put it on alert: the consequence is the release of glucose, adrenaline and cortisol. It is the typical defense mechanism that our body uses to make us react to fear.
If the alarm signals don't work, the heart stops beating and we are technically dead, also because the brain usually stops responding 20-30 seconds after cardiac arrest and does not resume until our involuntary muscle starts hammering again. But studies show that awareness continues for about 3 minutes.
Going into specifics, a part of the brain obsessively stimulates memories of one's life and does so in a chaotic way, overlapping them without any chronological order.
We know that the body always reacts for one purpose, that is, survival . Why then does the brain project these memories to us just before it shuts down?
The reason is to push us to fight for life. By showing us our past, the brain tries to make us understand what we are losing and to get the body to react at its maximum capacity . Sometimes it works and the body continues to react for a few precious moments, giving time for rescuers to intervene.
