scholarly journals No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan T. Lott ◽  
Tenzin Yeshi ◽  
N. Norchung ◽  
Sonam Dolma ◽  
Nyima Tsering ◽  
...  

Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and postmortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, mismatch negativity (MMN), and auditory brainstem response (ABR). In this study, we present HB data to demonstrate the feasibility of a sparse electrode EEG configuration to capture well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (05) ◽  
pp. 227-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy R. Vander Werff ◽  
Carolyn J. Brown ◽  
Barbara A. Gienapp ◽  
Kelly M. Schmidt Clay

Recently, auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) have been proposed as an alternative to the auditory brainstem response (ABR) for threshold estimation. The goal of this study was to investigate the degree to which ASSR thresholds correlate with ABR thresholds for a group of sedated children with a range of hearing losses. Thirty-two children from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics ranging in age from 2 months to 3 years and presenting with a range of ABR thresholds participated. Strong correlations were found between the 2000-Hz ASSR thresholds and click ABR thresholds (r = .96), the average of the 2000- and 4000-Hz ASSR thresholds and click ABR thresholds (r = .97), and the 500-Hz ASSR and 500-Hz toneburst ABR thresholds (r = .86). Additionally, it was possible to measure ASSR thresholds for several children with hearing loss that was great enough to result in no ABR at the limits of the equipment. The results of this study indicate that the ASSR may provide a reasonable alternative to the ABR for estimating audiometric thresholds in very young children.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danya Glaser

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline brain structure and development, the relationship between environment and brain development and implications for practice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a selected review of the literature and clinical experience. Findings – While genetics determine the sequence of brain maturation, the nature of brain development and functioning is determined by the young child's caregiving environment, to which the developing brain constantly adapts. The absence of input during sensitive periods may lead to later reduced functioning. There is an undoubted immediate equivalence between every mind function – emotion, cognition, behaviour and brain activity, although the precise location of this in the brain is only very partially determinable, since brain connections and function are extremely complex. Originality/value – This paper provides an overview of key issues in neurodevelopment relating to the development of young children, and implications for policy and practice.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Hans Goller

Neuroscientists keep telling us that the brain produces consciousness and consciousness does not survive brain death because it ceases when brain activity ceases. Research findings on near-death-experiences during cardiac arrest contradict this widely held conviction. They raise perplexing questions with regard to our current understanding of the relationship between consciousness and brain functions. Reports on veridical perceptions during out-of-body experiences suggest that consciousness may be experienced independently of a functioning brain and that self-consciousness may continue even after the termination of brain activity. Data on studies of near-death-experiences could be an incentive to develop alternative theories of the body-mind relation as seen in contemporary neuroscience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Veneta Uzunova

In a pandemic, the child-parent relationship is facing new challenges. Social isolation affects people differently, but a sustainable internal psychological resource allows the individual to get out of the critical period with as little damage as possible. Healthy emotionality is a basic prerequisite for the formation and development of emotional intelligence. The identification of the emotion, the control over the impulse and its expression in a socially acceptable way by the parent - all this is inextricably linked with the process of upbringing in the family and marks the nature of the relationship between parents and children. The study focuses on the study of the emotional style of the modern parent in the context of his interaction with the children in the family. The emotional style questionnaire used by a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison was used. The survey was conducted among parents of children and students from 3 to 18 years. Conclusions were made regarding the specifics of the emotional style of the parents in the context of the established state of emergency and in connection with pedagogical activities aimed at creating conditions for increasing the emotional intelligence of the respondents with the support of the school.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. eaba8792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Wei Xiao ◽  
Yudong Ding ◽  
Yulong Feng ◽  
Xiang Peng ◽  
...  

Understanding the relationship between brain activity and specific mental function is important for medical diagnosis of brain symptoms, such as epilepsy. Magnetoencephalography (MEG), which uses an array of high-sensitivity magnetometers to record magnetic field signals generated from neural currents occurring naturally in the brain, is a noninvasive method for locating the brain activities. The MEG is normally performed in a magnetically shielded room. Here, we introduce an unshielded MEG system based on optically pumped atomic magnetometers. We build an atomic magnetic gradiometer, together with feedback methods, to reduce the environment magnetic field noise. We successfully observe the alpha rhythm signals related to closed eyes and clear auditory evoked field signals in unshielded Earth’s field. Combined with improvements in the miniaturization of the atomic magnetometer, our method is promising to realize a practical wearable and movable unshielded MEG system and bring new insights into medical diagnosis of brain symptoms.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Bramhall ◽  
Garnett McMillan ◽  
Frederick Gallun ◽  
Dawn Konrad-Martin

Tinnitus is one of the predicted perceptual consequences of cochlear synaptopathy, a type of age-, noise-, or drug-induced auditory damage that has been demonstrated in animal models to cause homeostatic changes in central auditory gain. Although synaptopathy has been observed in human temporal bones, assessment of this condition in living humans is limited to indirect non-invasive measures such as the auditory brainstem response (ABR). In animal models, synaptopathy is associated with a reduction in ABR wave I amplitude at suprathreshold stimulus levels. Several human studies have explored the relationship between wave I amplitude and tinnitus, with conflicting results. This study investigates the hypothesis that reduced peripheral auditory input due to synaptic/neuronal loss is associated with tinnitus. ABR wave I amplitude data from 193 individuals (43 with tinnitus (22%), 150 without tinnitus (78%)), who participated in up to three out of four different studies, were included in a logistic regression analysis to estimate the relationship between wave I amplitude and tinnitus at a variety of stimulus levels and frequencies. Statistical adjustment for sex and distortion product otoacoustic emissions was included in the analysis. The results suggest that smaller ABR wave I amplitudes are associated with an increased probability of reporting tinnitus.


2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey S. Gilmore ◽  
George Fein

Event-related, target stimulus-phase-locked (evoked) brain activity in both the time and time-frequency (TF) domains (the P3b ERP; evoked theta oscillations) has been shown to be reduced in alcoholics. Recently, studies have suggested that there is alcohol-related information in the non-stimulus-phase-locked (induced) theta TF activity. We applied TF analysis to target stimulus event-related EEG recorded during an oddball task from 41 long-term abstinent alcoholics (LTAA) and 74 nonalcoholic controls (NAC) to investigate the relationship between P3b, evoked theta, and induced theta activity. Results showed that an event-related synchronization (ERS) of induced theta (1) was larger in LTAA compared to NAC, and (2) was sensitive to differences between LTAA and NAC groups that was independent of the differences accounted for by P3b amplitude or evoked theta. These findings suggest that increased induced theta ERS may likely be a biomarker for a morbid effect of alcohol abuse on brain function.


2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 2593-2613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Hitchman ◽  
Shellie M. Rowe

Abstract Simulations of the effects of deep convection on the structure of potential vorticity (PV) in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) have shown that a common signature in the presence of ambient horizontal vorticity is a horizontal PV dipole. Here, the relationship between convection and PV structures in the UTLS in Tropical Cyclone Talas and the extratropical “Super Tuesday” cyclone is investigated with the University of Wisconsin Nonhydrostatic Modeling System (UWNMS). Dipoles of potential temperature in the UTLS are interpreted as an upward deflection of the ambient flow over the updraft (cold), followed by subsidence in its lee (warm), aligned with the wind direction. PV dipoles larger than ±20 PV units (1 PVU = 10−6 K kg−1 m2 s−1) are identified, with typical vertical and horizontal extents of ~3 and ~200 km, respectively, and lifetimes up to 12 h. Confirming the findings of Chagnon and Gray, it is found that horizontal PV dipoles are related to vortex tilting, where horizontally oriented vorticity associated with vertical shear of the ambient wind is bent into a horseshoe shape by the updraft, yielding a PV dipole. This suggests that theta dipoles are perpendicular to PV dipoles and that “low PV lies to the left of the wind shear,” or, in the case of tropical cyclones, “low PV lies radially outward.” Mesoscale jets occur between the dipoles, which oppose the ambient anticyclonic flow. During the extratropical transition of Talas, convective PV anomalies evolved under synoptic-scale deformation into a pair of PV streamers, which modified the midlatitude westerly jet.


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