Department of Psychology, Vancouver, Canada.
Department of Family Medicine, Vancouver, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 25;10(1):10336. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67234-9.
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.
“听力是最后丧失的吗？”我们提供了有意识的、积极临终的临终关怀患者的听力证据。报告了个体 ERP（MMN、P3a 和 P3b）对听觉模式偏差的反应，这些反应针对有意识的年轻健康对照参与者，以及当后者有意识时，以及当他们对环境失去反应时再次针对临终关怀患者。虽然 MMN（也许 P3a 也是如此）被认为是对听觉不规则性的自动反应，但 P3b 与对异常目标的有意识检测相关。所有对照参与者，以及大多数有反应的临终关怀患者，对音调或听觉模式的偏差表现出“局部”效应（MMN、P3a 或两者兼有），有些则表现出“全局”效应（P3b）。重要的是，大多数无反应的患者对音调变化表现出 MMN 反应的证据，有些患者对音调或模式变化表现出 P3a 或 P3b 反应。因此，他们的听觉系统与生命即将结束前数小时的年轻健康对照者的听觉系统反应相似。听力确实可能是人类死亡时最后丧失功能的感觉之一。
