When You Die, You Know You're Dead Because Brain Still Works

For years experts have been at odds about what exactly happens when we die, but recent research says that the brain continues to work after death, and we can be aware of everything going on around us, including knowing that we are dead.

This is according to findings by Dr. Sam Parni of the NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City, who has been trying to figure out what happens after death by analyzing studies of people who have "come back to life" after cardiac arrest.

Speaking to LiveScience, Parni explained that a patient is declared dead according to when the heart stops beating, which is how time of death is determined

In the first phase of death, he believes people may still experience some form of consciousness. This is based on evidence that people whose hearts stopped but were restarted again could accurately describe what was happening around them in the moments they were considered to be technically dead.

"They'll describe watching doctors and nurses working; they'll describe having awareness of full conversations, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them," he told LiveScience. The accounts were verified by medical staff present at the time. 

There has been some controversy on exactly when a person is considered to be officially dead, however, Zoe-Anne Barcellos, a medicolegal death investigator, echoed Parni's statements by confirming that while the legalities may differ between states, "the time listed on your death certificate is the time you were pronounced" which she explained "will be at, or very close to, the time your biological processes stopped — your heart stopped beating or breathing stopped," Forbes noted.

Parni’s findings are part of a larger study to help figure out improved ways of monitoring the brain to better the quality of resuscitation and ultimately prevent brain injuries while restarting the heart.

"We also study the human mind and consciousness in the context of death, to understand whether consciousness becomes annihilated or whether it continues after you've died for some period of time — and how that relates to what's happening inside the brain in real time," Parnia told LiveScience.

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