Researchers Think a K-Hole Might Actually be the Brain Going Offline

[Judi Lynn]

A team of scientists at Cambridge may have accidentally discovered why k-holes feel so much like near-death experiences.

By Gavin Butler
Jun 15 2020, 2:30am



IMAGE VIA WIKIMEDIA

Researchers studying the effects of ketamine on sheep might have accidentally discovered the reason people k-hole.

A team of scientists from the University of Cambridge were measuring the brain waves of the sedated animals as part of a study aimed at understanding the effect of therapeutic drugs on people with Huntington's disease: a condition in which nerve cells in the brain break down, leading to motor, cognitive, and psychiatric complications.

For the first and second phases of the experiment, researchers administered 12 mg/kg of ketamine to the sheep and monitored their brain activity both while they were anaesthetised and as the drug gradually wore off. For the third phase, the researchers monitored the brain activity of six of the 12 sheep after they were given a single ketamine dose of 24mg/kg.

What they found was that the sheep displayed “unusual” brain wave activity while they were coming out of sedation—which likely accounts for the dissociative and hallucinatory effects of a ketamine high—while the brain waves of sheep that were given a more intense dose appeared to stop altogether for a period of several minutes—a “pause” which the researchers believe might explain the experience of a k-hole.

More:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkygxy/a-k-hole-might-be-the-brain-going-offline

[mr_lebowski]

1. I kinda prefer drugs that have rather the opposite effect from 'a near death experience'

Call me crazy but that doesn't sound like ... what I'd take drugs for.

Ya know, if I were the sort to ever, ever take drugs

[Layzeebeaver]

2. Experienced a K-hole once...

...and I will never seek to experience it again. A feeling of total numbness, inability to move, your thoughts are slow and the world keeps moving around you.

Definitely not for me.

For background, it happened on halloween night in New Orleans c2003 in a joint called "The Voodoo Lounge". I hope it's still exists (without the K).

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. I believe I've visited the Voodoo Lounge, during Mardi Gras.

Is it the one that’s a old dungeon? It was a long time ago!

[Layzeebeaver]

6. Could be...

It was filled with all kinds of voodoo paraphernalia and dolls. A pool table in the back.

[empedocles]

5. Your numbmess effect eems like opiod effects?

[soothsayer]

4. Oh, thought it was about Drumpf's tweets

Thought the “a-hole” was going offline.

My bad.

Otherwise, very interesting.

[CloudWatcher]

7. "the brains of these sheep completely stopped"

This is a really cool article ... but ... if their brains had completely stopped, then nothing would have been driving the heart or lungs and you'd have dead sheep. Of course it could be an accurate description and the article should have been the big news that the heart and lungs can continue without a brain!

I was ready to blame sloppy reporting, but it appears to be a direct quote from the researcher. Oh well!