No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State
Dylan Thomas Lott, Tenzin Yeshi, N. Norchung, Sonam Dolma, Nyima Tsering, Ngawang Jinpa, Tenzin Woser, Kunsang Dorjee, Tenzin Desel, Dan Fitch, Anna J Finley, Robin I. Goldman, Ana María Ortiz Bernal, Rachele Ragazzi, Karthik Aroor, John V. Koger, Andy Francis, D. Perlman, Joseph Wielgosz, David R. W. Bachhuber, Tsewang Tamdin, Tsetan Dorji Sadutshang, John D. Dunne, Antoine Lutz, Richard J. Davidson
Frontiers in Psychology January 28, 2021 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190 via OpenAlex
Summary
Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans, reinforcing the need for further investigation of brain activity during the dying process. 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 (tukdam) cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For healthy baseline and postmortem subjects, resting state EEG, mismatch negativity, and auditory brainstem response data were collected. Living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, but no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthy baseline subjects and postmortem Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in a putative meditative state (tukdam) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Mismatch negativity Electroencephalography Psychology Audiology |
| Citations | 18 |
| Key finding | Living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, but no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases. |
Abstract
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.