Saed News: According to research, hearing is the last sense that people lose when they are dying. Scientists have found that the brain continues to record the last sounds a person hears, even if the body no longer responds to them.
According to SAEDNEWS, citing Roziatto, doctors usually tell the families of patients near death to speak with them and, if they have comforting words, to whisper them. This is because research shows that the hearing of dying individuals may still function, meaning that even if the body does not respond, the brain continues to record the last sounds it hears.
A study published in June 2020 showed that the brains of patients in “active dying” states in palliative care still recorded activity in response to sounds.
Researchers examined brain activity in 17 monitored patients, eight responsive hospice patients, and five unresponsive hospice patients. Each patient was exposed to two types of tones with five notes, where one version contained only repeated notes while the other had a different pattern. Responsive healthy patients were asked to count the number of sequences in which the patterns changed.
Scientists found that brain activity patterns in unresponsive individuals were similar to those in healthy patients, suggesting that people still retain hearing ability at the time of death and show neural responses to simple auditory stimuli.
Lawrence Ward, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of British Columbia, said: “What we know is that the auditory system of some of these patients functions in a way close to normal.”
Despite understanding that hearing is the last sense to fade at death, scientists say it is still unclear whether patients actually understand what they hear. Ward said: “It is possible that some of their cognitive processes remain active despite their inability to respond. What we still do not know is whether they understand these words and are comforted by them.”
