Scientists Once Scanned the Brains from Three Suspected Zombie
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VIVA – The undead don't usually participate in clinical studies. But three zombies once agreed to have their brain activity studied by researchers in Haiti, Caribbean.
Like an episode of Scooby Doo, the investigation was launched in an attempt to uncover the identities of the three who had each been recognized by locals as long-dead and returned from the dead.
According to Haitian Voodoo beliefs, the spirits of the dead can sometimes be captured by witches called bokors, who can then use the souls to reanimate new corpses into zombies.
These walking dead are regularly reported to local authorities, with a thousand zombies spotted each year, as reported by IFL science site.
In a study published in 1997, researchers investigated three such cases, using electroencephalography techniques and DNA testing to try and find a rational explanation for the walking dead.
First, it involved a woman who died at the age of 30, found three years later by family members who recognized her because of the distinctive facial markings.
Ilustrasi: perilaku zombie pada penderita Sindrom Cotard
- U-Report
The local court then authorized the opening of the woman's grave, revealing that it was full of stones.
The author of the study explained that she kept her head in a lowered position, and walked very slowly and stiffly, barely moving her arms.
She was also unable to communicate but occasionally muttered unintelligible but stereotypical words.
Despite the woman's zombification, the researchers revealed that her electroencephalogram and central nervous system examination were unremarkable.
Based on their assessment of her condition, the authors offer a presumptive diagnosis of catatonic schizophrenia, but cannot explain how she came back from the dead.
The woman may not have died at all, but may have been poisoned by a muscle neurotoxin -perhaps administered by an evil bokor- to cause catalepsy and trick relatives into thinking she was dead.
The witch could then retrieve the buried body shortly before the woman regained consciousness, while the lack of oxygen in the grave may have resulted in brain damage, thus explaining her zombie-like state.
Furthermore, the authors of the study described a 26-year-old man who was seen at a local cockfight 19 months after being buried. The man's uncle was later found guilty of using witchcraft to make the man into a zombie, who was then chained to a log at his parents' home.
Again, clinical examination yielded no supernatural findings, and the man was diagnosed with 'organic brain syndrome and epilepsy'.
More importantly, DNA tests revealed that he was not a long-dead person, undermining his claims of being a zombie.
In a similar case, a 31-year-old woman was identified as a villager who had been dead for 13 years. Yet again, medical examinations revealed that she was still very much human while genetic analysis showed that she was not a deceased individual.
Considering these last two examples, the study authors concluded that the misidentification of a wandering, mentally ill, stranger by grieving relatives was the most likely explanation. Of course, they would have gotten away with it if not for the meddling researchers.
