Neuroscientists have recorded intense bursts of neural activity, lasting about 30 seconds, in rats after experimentally stopping their hearts. The researchers claim that the after-death brain activity is associated with a heightened conscious experience and may be a neural correlate of near-death experiences—a suite of euphoric, hyper-real experiences reported by nearly 20 percent of cardiac arrest victims. The findings were published Monday (August 12) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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