Near-Death Experiences in patients with locked-in syndrome: Not always a blissful journey

Memories of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) most often are recounted as emotionally positive events. At present, no satisfactory explanatory model exists to fully account for the rich phenomenology of NDEs following a severe acute brain injury. The particular population of patients with locked-in syndrome (LIS) provides a unique opportunity to study NDEs following infratentorial brain lesions. We here retrospectively characterized the content of NDEs in 8 patients with LIS caused by an acute brainstem lesion (i.e., “LIS NDEs”) and 23 NDE experiencers after coma with supratentorial lesions (i.e., “classical NDEs”). Compared to “classical NDEs”, “LIS NDEs” less frequently experienced a feeling of peacefulness or well-being. It could be hypothesized that NDEs containing less positive emotions might have a specific neuroanatomical substrate related to impaired pontine/paralimbic connectivity or alternatively might be related to the emotional distress caused by the presence of conscious awareness in a paralyzed body.     

脑梗塞、脑出血病人外显与内隐记忆的实验研究

采用模糊字辨认、自由回忆和再认的方法分别测试脑梗塞、脑出血病人（实验组）与无脑部病变者（对照组）外显记忆和内隐记忆成绩。结果发现：实验组较对照组外显记忆降低，内隐记忆存在。提出病人其记忆功能呈外显记忆损害，内隐记忆保存的特点。这种记忆功能的双重性为此种病人记忆功能康复训练提供了新的实验证据。