Observational studyScientific reports2020
Electrophysiological evidence of preserved hearing at the end of life.
Observational study in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07477028 (Feasibility of Non-Invasive Detection and Preservation of Neurocognitive Signals in the Peri-Death Period Using Brain-Computer Interface and Artificial Intelligence), which is not on this map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Feasibility of Non-Invasive Detection and Preservation of Neurocognitive Signals in the Peri-Death Period Using Brain-Computer Interface and Artificial Intelligence: A Prospective Observational Study (NeuroCogPresv)
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cortical processing modulation in DOC by preferred music-coupled 40 Hz binaural stimulation: an exploratory EEG-fNIRS study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Listening Until the End: Best Practices and Guidelines for Auditory Care in Palliative Sedation in Europe.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers for the Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2025Article
- Children's inhibition skills are associated with their P3a latency-results from an exploratory study.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2022Article
- Article
- Electrocerebral Signature of Cardiac Death.Neurocritical care · 2021Article
- No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study attempts to answer the question: "Is hearing the last to go?" We present evidence of hearing among unresponsive actively dying hospice patients. Individual ERP (MMN, P3a, and P3b) responses to deviations in auditory patterns are reported for conscious young, healthy control participants, as well as for hospice patients, both when the latter were conscious, and again when they became unresponsive to their environment. Whereas the MMN (and perhaps too the P3a) is considered an automatic response to auditory irregularities, the P3b is associated with conscious detection of oddball targets. All control participants, and most responsive hospice patients, evidenced a "local" effect (either a MMN, a P3a, or both) and some a "global" effect (P3b) to deviations in tone, or deviations in auditory pattern. Importantly, most unresponsive patients showed evidence of MMN responses to tone changes, and some showed a P3a or P3b response to either tone or pattern changes. Thus, their auditory systems were responding similarly to those of young, healthy controls just hours from end of life. Hearing may indeed be one of the last senses to lose function as humans die.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.