Scientists have found that you can still say goodbye to your loved ones even while they are at the brink of death. A study by the University of British Columbia found that even when the patient is unconscious and close to death, they still have their sense of hearing and can hear what their loved ones are saying to them.

So here’s what the researchers did; they measured electrical activity in the patients’s brain with a hat containing 64 electrodes.

They identified brain signals generated in response to complex tonal changes by playing a series of tone patterns to a young and healthy control group before replicating the test on a small number of hospice patients.

The researchers checked for the same signals when the patient was both responsive and unresponsive and found brain activity between the two were very similar, as well as to the activity found in the control group

BUZZ Fam, this study could explain stories of patients “waiting’”for their loved ones to arrive at their bedside before dying.

However, it is not known whether the patient can understand what they’re hearing or whether they can simply hear the words.

Lead author Elizabeth Blundon said that patients transitioning from life to death might recognise their favourite piece of music.

The study was first published in the Times.