Return to Paradoxical Lucidity

Back in 2019, we wrote about a journal article on a phenomenon called "paradoxical lucidity."  What is that?  It's the observation that a dying person with severe dementia may apparently recover their cognition shortly before death.  A friend tells me about how this happened to his father on the afternoon when he died.  There has been interest in the subject, but I haven't seen much actual investigation.  Articles I've read seem to conclude much as with everything else in the world of dementia research, "More research is necessary."  But what research?

I guess they're going to do some more research.  A research team at Mayo clinic is beginning to get organized to pursue this question.  I got a notification email about it, but details for participation have yet to be worked out.  I'll be curious to see how that shapes up, and I plan to share information on it if and when it comes to me.

An obvious objective of the research will be to gain new insight into memory and brain function and help facilitate a deeper understanding of neurodegenerative conditions.  But this touches on some questions people have been asking since the days of Plato and Aristotle.

"Lucidity" is very much wrapped up in the concept of consciousness.  But what is consciousness?  Scientists and philosophers refer to "the hard problem of consciousness."  Is it, as Dr. Daniel Dennett proposes, a phenomenon that arises from the collective activities of the brain?  This is called materialism or physicalism.  Or is consciousness an entity that cooperates with the biology of the brain, but nevertheless exists separately from the brain?  This viewpoint is referred to as dualism and was proposed by René Descartes in the 17th century.

So it seems to me that a question the researchers need to investigate is whether biological deterioration of the brain results directly in deterioration of the cognitive function because they are unified, or if consciousness is somehow preserved separately from the brain and is sometimes restored shortly before death.

While scientists sometimes dabble in these questions, from Aristotle until now, these matters have generally been considered to be in the realm of philosophy -- and religion.