Hearing Persists in the Final Hours, EEG Study Finds

A 2020 University of British Columbia EEG study, published in Scientific Reports, found actively dying hospice patients still exhibit brain responses to sounds hours before death—through event-related potentials—suggesting the voices of loved ones in the room may reach them even when they are unresponsive. The finding lends neural support to hospice guidance to speak normally and play familiar sounds, though it does not prove subjective experience and the study’s small, variably conditioned sample limits broad conclusions.