title: [Near death experiences].
abstract: Near Death Experiences are those accounted by people who after being clinically dead return to life spontaneously or after reanimation. These experiences have been used traditionally to support the belief in the existence of the soul and of life after death. However, today neuroscience tries to explain these experiences from the scientific point of view, i.e. explaining them based on their brain substrates. Their resemblance to mystic experiences and to altered states of consciousness seems to indicate that they may be produced by hyperactivity of limbic structures caused by anoxia or hypercapnia.
authors.forename: Francisco José
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Rubia Vila
mesh_terms: D003643:Death; D006801:Humans; D013795:Thanatology