Brain activatity continues after death is this true?
2007-08-17 09:22:36 · 5 answers · asked by runescape sucks 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
...no, but it appears that way some times.
I'm not sure where you heard this, so I will just tell you about the example I've heard about it. During the French Revolution, many, many, many people lost their heads. The French didn't see a problem mostly because they thought the guillotine was the most humane way to kill somebody. There was a woman who, after she was beheaded, the executioner picked up her head and slapped the cheek. Her cheek suddenly turned bright red. A scientist (or perhaps otherwise educated person) who was lined up for the guillotine decided to make his death an experiment. He as a friend of his to stand next to him when he got his head chopped and see if he would blink; he was going to try and blink as many times as possible after his head left is body. The day came, the blade fell, the scientist blinked and his friend counted. 13 blinks.
I don't think this means there is brain activity after death. I think it means more that something as seemingly quick as having ones head chopped off still requires a couple of seconds for the brain to stop working. Similar to chickens. Chickens don't run around, dead with their heads cut off. It just means the body doesn't instantly die when the head is chopped off.
But I'm not sure if this is the example you are referring to.
2007-08-17 09:47:50 · answer #1 · answered by Martin S 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the criterion being used to decide when the moment of death is. Clinical death is the cessation of breathing and heartbeat; legal death in some jurisdictions is the cessation of brain activity. So the answers are yes and no respectively for those definitions.
2007-08-17 17:14:32 · answer #2 · answered by dsw_s 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends on the cause of death. If there was trauma to the head. Then no. If the person had a heart attack, and was not already in shock, that person may for a few seconds know they are dead. I would hope that, for those few seconds, they are peaceful quite and painless.
2007-08-17 16:42:04 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, I don't think so. A person can be brain dead but kept breathing by machines. But I don't think it can be the other way around.
2007-08-17 16:27:44 · answer #4 · answered by Frosty 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
brain activity, bowel activity, sweating, and hair and nail growth too. only briefly of course. then you get all stinky.
2007-08-17 16:27:52 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋