14 DAY TRIAL // It turns out the rabbit hole is way deeper than previously believed. Thus, scientists writing in the journal PLOS ONE detail the discovery of a previously undocumented coma state, which they say is deeper than the so-called flat line.
In their paper, the researchers at the University on Montreal and their colleagues explain that, up until recently, the flat line, otherwise known as the flat electroencephalogram, was presumed to be the deepest state of coma a person could enter.
This coma state is characterized by no brain activity whatsoever, hence the fact that the scientific community also linked it to no possibility of life.
Apparently, scientists were wrong. There is an even deeper state of coma, which, oddly enough, is characterized by sings of brain activity.
The researchers first came to suspect that one such very deep come state exists after Dr. Bogdan Florea from Romania contacted them and told them that the brain of one of his patients, who was supposed to be in an extreme deep coma induced by anti-epileptic medication, was behaving in a fairly peculiar manner.
“Dr. Bogdan Florea from Romania contacted our research team because he had observed unexplainable phenomena on the EEG of a coma patient. We realized that there was cerebral activity, unknown until now, in the patient’s brain,” Dr. Florin Amzica with the University of Montreal explains, as cited by Newswise.
The researchers decided to further investigate the issue by carrying out a series of experiments on cats. Thus, the animals were placed in an extremely deep coma with the help of an anesthetic named isoflurane, and the scientists closely monitored their brain activity.
Much to their surprise, all of the cats used in this experiment started displaying signs of cerebral activity after moving past the flat line coma state.
The brain activity originated in the hippocampus, i.e. the part of the brain that controls memory and learning processes, and was then transmitted to the cortex. The brain waves, i.e. Nu-complexes, documented in these cats were similar to that displayed by Dr. Bogdan Florea's patient.
"There's a deeper form of coma that goes beyond the flat line, and during this state of very deep coma, cortical activity revives,” Dr. Florin Amzica sums up his and his colleagues' findings.
The researchers theorize that their findings have therapeutical potential. Specifically, they claim that, rather than bringing patients to a flat line in an attempt to allow their bodies to recover from various conditions, it might prove more effective to make them enter this extremely deep coma state.
This is because, since their brain would still be somewhat active, they might have better chances of making a recovery.
“Indeed, an organ or muscle that remains inactive for a long time eventually atrophies. It is plausible that the same applies to a brain kept for an extended period in a state corresponding to a flat EEG.”
“An inactive brain coming out of a prolonged coma may be in worse shape than a brain that has had minimal activity. Research on the effects of extreme deep coma during which the hippocampus is active, through Nu-complexes, is absolutely vital for the benefit of patients,” Dr. Florin Amzica argues.