Last thing people hear before death revealed by scientists and it's horrifying

The comforting notion of 'the light at the end of the tunnel' that is often associated with our final moments may not always hold true. In fact, the reality can be stark, clinical and unsettling.

Much like being submerged in a vat of icy water, as we approach death, our brains begin to shut down certain areas, focusing solely on maintaining vital organ function.

This disparity between brain and body function could explain the myriad of different accounts people share about their near-death experiences. However, there is scientific evidence supporting one particularly disconcerting anomaly related to these experiences.

Some individuals have even reported hearing doctors declare their time of death - and science supports this claim.

The brain can occasionally remain active after a person has died, long enough to hear their time of death announced. Dr Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City, assembled a team to study a group of individuals who had briefly died following cardiac arrest but were subsequently revived, reports <a href="https://www.themirror.com/news/science/horrifying-final-words-dying-people-1198853" rel="Follow" target="_self">the Mirror US</a>.

Scores of patients have come forward with astonishing claims of being aware of their surroundings and hearing conversations after being declared dead by medics. Their accounts of the moment they 'died' have been verified by medical staff, who have been left stunned by the phenomenon.

A groundbreaking new study has collected numerous examples of people recalling full conversations and events that took place around them after their time of death had been recorded.

According to Dr Sam Parnia, death is typically defined as the moment the heart stops beating and blood flow to the brain ceases.

He explained: "Technically, that's how you get the time of death – it's all based on the moment when the heart stops."

At this point, brain function is thought to halt almost instantly, with the loss of all brain stem reflexes.

However, research has suggested that the brain may release a brief burst of energy just before dying.

A 2013 University of Michigan study found that the brains of anaesthetised rats experiencing an induced heart attack displayed activity patterns associated with a "hyper-alerted state" shortly after clinical death.

Dr Parnia said: "In the same way that a group of researchers might be studying the qualitative nature of the human experience of 'love', for instance, we're trying to understand the exact features that people experience when they go through death, because we understand that this is going to reflect the universal experience we're all going to have when we die."