Does the brain still release chemicals after death if the brain is incomplete?

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This was kind of a strange shower thought I had knowing that the brain has been shown to have a surge of activity while releasing things like serotonin amongst other things after the heart stops beating. I imagine research would be very limited but say someone passes away of a blunt force that leaves the brain incomplete or under severe trauma, would this same process still occur?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It would depend on exactly which part(s) of the brain is incomplete, I guess. The brain is a big complex organ connected to basically the entire body so it would require a very specific injury to completely circumvent all of the things it does in the dying process. But if you just like, crushed someone’s head very quickly, I imagine that would do it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Remember that, while we typically consider ourselves to be one organism, we’re made up of trillions of somewhat independent cells, each of which are alive in their own right.

Even if the heart stops beating, the brain cells are still alive until they die due to lack of oxygen. They’re still going to act, and they’re going to act erratically as they start to die. Even if you shoot half of someone’s brain out, the principle still stands – the remaining cells will act as they do until they die.