Is it true your brain still works after you die?

Question

I heard your brain can continue working after you die for as much as 40 hours, so you are basically left in a vegetative concious state, that has to suck more then anything

I sometimes wonder what happens if your brain continues working until your brain rots or you are cremated

I put my dog to sleep a few weeks ago and when I did I just had an eery feeling he wasnt completly dead and he was looking at me, I am very attatched to my dog and it was such an eery feeling, like he wasnt completly dead in his eye

I guess no one knows for sure and when we die we will figure it out, that must suck in those final moments when you know you are dead and there is nothing you can do about it, especially if it is prolonged for something like 40 hours or even 40 minutes, h**l even 40 seconds

Answer 1

Ten minutes give or take. You are not dead or declared dead until your brain is fully dead. Your brain can survive about 10 minutes without oxygen before complete death. If someone hooks you up to a brainwave monitor you will not be declared dead until that monitor flatlines. Hope this helps.

This might apply less to dogs because they have smaller brains, but at the same point it doesn't matter if you dog had died ten minutes or ten seconds ago, I know that look and it doesn't change, you just expect them to blink. It is very strange and unnerving, but it is how it is. Dead bodies look alive with the eyes open.

Answer 2

Your brain has activity but its not really known if your brain plays back memory think of it this way. You get hit in the head with a baseball bat. Really really hard! You black out when you wake up did you dream or did you just black out? Your brain was still functioning but your mind wasn't. Get what i'm saying?

Answer 3

I had to put my dog down last year :( I think that the brain would stay working for a little while after you die, but you wouldn't be able to feel it or be able to tell if it is because you are dead and your blood wouldn't be running.

Answer 4

I'm not sure, but there is that new show on fox that says that they can get info out of a dead man's brain for up to 40 hours. Also, a man who was going to be executed by beheading was trying to prove that it was a cruel and unusual punishment by blinking after being beheaded. He blinked for a full 11 seconds after his head was cut off.

Answer 5

The medical definition of death is absence of brainwaves, which means no measurable electrical activity in the brain.  Once you stop breathing, your brain's electrical activity will cease very quickly and, as another poster indicated, brain cells will begin to die rapidly.

Presumably when we have no "brainwaves", we are not aware of what's happening.  Does anyone know for sure?  No.

It's a frightening concept that there is some sort of unmeasurable consciousness inside us (the soul, if you will) that may be aware of what's happening to the body after we're dead.  Is there some sort of awareness in there that can't be measured?  No one really knows.

I have had animals euthanized before.  I have watched relatives be "unplugged" and die.  Yes, it's an eerie feeling that the animal, or person, isn't quite dead.

This is why so many people turn to religion for comfort.

I am sorry about the loss of your dog.  I am an animal lover and I believe that when we get to heaven (or wherever!), every pet we ever loved comes running to greet us.

Answer 6

Well, the medical definition of death is cessation of electrical activity in the brain. So the brain is not working (by definition) after death. It is possible to still be conscious at the time that your heart or lungs stop working, but as soon as the oxygen runs out, electrical activity in the brain short circuits and ceases. The process of decomposition of the delicate structures that make up our brains begins immediately, which is why people who have been deprived of oxygen suffer brain damage. I think its safe to say that the brain could not possibly work 40 hours after death, at least not in any capacity resembling consciousness. Not to worry.

Answer 7

I guess if your shot in the head or if your head is damaged badly it's probably not possible . I've heard that your brain is active for up to 15 seconds , while there is still blood in it , and then it is finished .

Answer 8

From what i have read it is only a few minutes.

Answer 9

possible good question

Answer 10

Yes it works for an extra 10 minutes

Answer 11

The brain works so long as there is oxygen in it.

However, the process in putting a dog to sleep includes chemicals that stop brain activity so there is no pain.

Answer 12

Brain death can be diagnosed with few tests.

As to when exactly the brain dies, this is not easy to answer but it doesn't take more than a minute of severe hypoxia to cause brain death (this is clearly demonstrated in chocking techniques).

People who have big ischaemic strokes can have symptoms resolution if the clot is removed within 3 hours, so ischaemic damage is essentially non-reversible after 3 hours.

40 hours seems way beyond scientific reason but if you believe in life after death then your dog was probably looking at you but without using his physical body. I hope this helped.

Answer 13

If he has oxygen it would be possible, but only for a short period of time.

Answer 14

I have read that it can take as long as 8 seconds for the brain to stop working after the heart stops pumping or when the blood supply is cut off (as in cases of decapitation).  There have actually been a surprising number of studies done on this.

Answer 15

Uhhhh...

Answer 16

your brain does not work after death for more than a few minutes. Once circulation stops, brain cells start to die within a few minutes.

Answer 17

How would you know?????