
“Awakenings” in Advanced Dementia Patients Hint at Untapped Brain Reserves - LinuxBender
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/awakenings-in-advanced-dementia-patients-hint-at-untapped-brain-reserves/
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buro9
This makes me think of the lucidity I witnessed in the people I knew who later
committed suicide.

In the hours, days, and sometimes weeks before suicide, their depression was
gone, their insular thoughts vanish, and a deep peacefulness and a period of
lucidity that exceeds any capability for such wisdom and thoughtfulness
beforehand was visible.

I dislike having seen enough to spot this pattern.

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tinco
Maybe that lucidity was the final push for them. To experience the
peacefulness they might always enjoy were they healthy, and then having to go
back to the misery of their affliction after.

I'm sorry for your loss.

~~~
est31
Robert Sapolsky described it this way [1]:

> You get someone who is severely depressed, like to the point of
> hospitalization, and when they are absolutely crippled with psychomotor
> retardation, that's not when you worry about suicide.

> This is someone who's having enough trouble getting out of bed and getting
> dressed each day. They're not going to figure out how to shred the hospital
> mattress and make a noose out of it.

> Where you've got your problems is when somebody begins to get better from a
> severe depression. When they're starting to come out, that's where the
> psychomotor retardation relieves enough that suddenly they've got the energy
> to do something catastrophic. That's when people are on suicide watches
> (when you have clinicians who are oriented well).

[1]: [https://youtu.be/NOAgplgTxfc?t=514](https://youtu.be/NOAgplgTxfc?t=514)

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ianai
“it seems to be a spontaneous, meaningful event that goes well beyond the
occasional “good days” most dementia patients experience. The period of
clarity is brief, lasting minutes, hours or possibly a day. It seems to come
in the hours, days or weeks before death”

Based on my understanding of “why we sleep” and seeing complicated things
fail, I wonder if their brains reach a maximally deteriorated state that
somehow cancels out the damage temporarily. It might be helpful to find out
whether people in these episodes seem truly “in tact” and able to recall their
memories across their whole lives. Or, if it tends to be some minute portion
of their memories.

Don’t know, but I genuinely wish this disease to perish. How it took my family
members was just evil.

~~~
Fr0styMatt88
My first thought was "I wonder if it's caused by a release of DMT?" [1] [2].
Interesting research ahead for sure.

[1]
[https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.0142...](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01424/full)

[2] [https://beckleyfoundation.org/2017/07/05/do-our-brains-
produ...](https://beckleyfoundation.org/2017/07/05/do-our-brains-produce-dmt-
and-if-so-why/)

~~~
svjatoslav
Exactly !!! Someone should notify this team or others in the field. I think
DMT controls neurons sensitivity (trigger happiness). In high amounts one gets
hallucinations. But for vegetative patients low amount of DMT might restore
brain activity to normal level.

~~~
svjatoslav
I shared DMT idea to Lydia (article author).

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bitwize
Oh man, the ending to _Coco_ just got even sadder...

