When neurons die they burst like balloons

Thirty seconds after decapitation, still conscious, a brain experiences a ‘wave of death’ and transmits a signal, apparently a final attempt to restart an absent heart. As it is in rats, so it is in humans. Some researchers think the wave is a warning that neurons have ceased to function, rather than one of irreversible, balloon-bursting damage. “The brain is screaming that something is terribly wrong,” says Lance Becker. Pigs have been successfully revived fifteen minutes after cardiac arrest with no lasting brain damage. The time limit to resuscitation is unknown.