Dying is an important last part of a man’s life. But neuroscientist Jimo Borgigin was surprised when he realized that we almost didn’t know what was going on in the brain at the moment of death.
This fact came to her very randomly about a decade ago.
“Then we were doing experiments on mice. After the surgery, we are examining the neurochemical secretions in their brains,” she told the BBC.
All of a sudden, two of the mice in them died. This made it possible for her to observe the process of death in their brains.
“It was found that serotonin was secreted too much in one rat. Did the rat have any mental hallucinations?” she said, wondering.
She explained that serotonin is associated with hallucinations.
Her interest grew when she saw that serotonin, a chemical that regulates emotions, was secreted so much.
“Since there might be some reason for that, I started to know about it. I was surprised to realise that we know very little about the process of dying.”
Dr. Jimo Borjigin, an associate professor of molecular, integrative physiology, and neurology at the University of Michigan since then, is dedicated to studying what happens in the brain when we die.
However, she said what she had found was contrary to what she had anticipated.