New Hope for Brain Recovery: Understanding the ‘Death Wave’ and Protecting Essential Brain Functions

2024-02-02 09:03:26

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 might 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 might 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 might protect certain essential brain functions in the event of oxygen deprivation.

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