PNAS paper about gamma wave activity at the back of the head in the dying human brain

Last Updated on May 19, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org

“Surge of neurophysiological coupling and connectivity of gamma oscillations in the dying human brain”

https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2216268120

These researcher found strong gamma wave activity at the back of the head in the dying human brain, as it is observed also during dreaming

  • The paper is very interesting, since these kind of scientific findings are rare. It is interesting if we are interested in the question if what people experience during a near death experience is real, or if it is only an illusion in our brain. Similar questions arrise about the realitiy of enlightement experiences.
  • But there are also researchers who view the study critically, for example, the near-death researcher and psychiatrist Bruce Greyson and the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel. part of the criticism is published in IANDS

Richard Davidson’s group found increased gamma wave activity in the left prefrontal cortex in the brains of mediators:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407401101

Arnaud Delorme’s group found gamma wave activity at the back of the brain in meditators:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170647

The Meditation Research Institute Switzerland (MRIS) has still not found a suitable equipment to measure gamma waves during practicing meditation, the MRIS has no research grant to buy an expensive equipment, it is a private project. And we did not find an EEG device which fits four our needs among the devices we reviewed, mainly also due to the lack of time to evaluate further.