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Decapitation - Is this true ?

jambo372

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I hear that it is scientifically proven that if I had to decapitate somebody's head, it would continue to see for a number of seconds afterwards.

I have been told that it is possible to increase the length of time for which a freshly decapitated head can see by holding it in a particular position. Do you know if this is true ? This could be used to spice up the life of an executioner or serial killer. I hear it was used on the head of Mary Queen of Scots as well.

I suppose it would be useless anyway, if the head could only see but not understand what was going on.
 
It's going to be rather difficult to find volunteers for any sort of empirical research...

As we were discussing in another thread, I suppose it's possible that a well-oxygenated brain could continue to function for some seconds, but the sudden catastrophic loss of blood pressure would limit that.
You'd expect that there would be a certain amount of autonomic nerve activity as well, which might account for tales of blinking, looking, lips moving, and that sort of thing.

Perhaps John Edwards could look up a few decapitation victims and ask em'.
 
But would there be enough time for a recapitation?


Isn't there a myth (or perhaps true story?) about someone blinking so that his associate/friend/family could determine how long he lived after being decapitated?

Here is something

Definite fake



Here is the story I was likely thinking of.

Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist who lived between 1743 and 1794, was caught up in the revolution and faced beheading. He asked friends to observe closely as he would continue blinking as long as possible after being killed. He was reported to have blinked for 15 seconds after decapitation.


The story of Antoine Lavoisier's last heroic service for science has been reported many times but unfortunately appears to have no basis in fact. It is not given in any contemporary account we have been able to find, nor in the standard accounts of his life and death. As pointed out above, however, there have been attempts to ascertain if a severed head retains consciousness. The most reliable account appears to be that given below.
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jambo372 said:
I hear that it is scientifically proven that if I had to decapitate somebody's head, it would continue to see for a number of seconds afterwards.

I have been told that it is possible to increase the length of time for which a freshly decapitated head can see by holding it in a particular position. Do you know if this is true ? This could be used to spice up the life of an executioner or serial killer. I hear it was used on the head of Mary Queen of Scots as well.

I suppose it would be useless anyway, if the head could only see but not understand what was going on.
Click to expand...

First, I don't see how it could be scientifically proven. The practical and ethical problems make it nearly impossible. Do they decapitate somebody and ask the head to say something when it can no longer see? It just doesn't make sense.

As for holding the head in a position that makes it live longer...I suppose the reasoning is that keeping as much blood inside the head as possible helps the brain "stay awake" longer; but this is not true. It's not the blood the brain needs per se, it's the oxygen that blood carries. Once the blood enters the brain, its oxygen is absorbed nearly immediately. The brain needs a constant supply of fresh oxygenated blood, or it simply will not function. So keeping blood inside a decapitated head will not work, since the blood is useless.

People over time have described heads that "do things" after decapitation; but I have a feeling it's most likely reflex nervous activity.
 
I don't recall there being any sort of back-up oxygen in the brain anywhere, so any sensations after the loss of blood flow would be short indeed.
 
There is some oxygen stored in any cell, I am not quite sure what a cell does in a situation like this, but it may have some way of extracting oxygen from other substances.

Either way, the brain dosent have much extra oxygen.

I dont think that the rapid blood pressure drop, and the rapid drop of CSF (the fluid in your spinal cord and around your brain) pressure are good either.

As for the body, I would immagine that the heart would beat for a while after the head was cut off, as the heart has a self-regulation center which will cause the heart to beat. However, a large ammount of blood is pumped toward the brain, and that blood would leak out of the neck, causing a drop in blood pressure and a heart attack.
 
I always liked the old horror-film dodge of the animated head. In one, the head (female) is talking to the "mad scientist" type, even though there's no air supply to make the poor lady's vocal cords work.

"Angel" managed to pull that one off as well, with the decapitated Host carrying on a conversation with Cordelia.
 
jambo372 said:
I hear it was used on the head of Mary Queen of Scots as well.
Click to expand...

It seems very unlikely that Mary's executioner held the head at a particular angle, since he didn't know she wore a wig, and as he lifted her head off the floor it detached and went rolling across the scaffold like a football, causing the spectators to scramble out of the way in horror. Hardly conducive to special techniques.

Having said that, her lips apparently continued to move for 15 minutes after death, "as though in prayer" - the old headless chicken thing again. Or Catholic propaganda, take yer pick.
 
Bikewer said:
I always liked the old horror-film dodge of the animated head. In one, the head (female) is talking to the "mad scientist" type, even though there's no air supply to make the poor lady's vocal cords work.

"Angel" managed to pull that one off as well, with the decapitated Host carrying on a conversation with Cordelia.
Click to expand...

With a decapitation, there is almost instantaneous loss of all normal brain functions because of the massive physiological insult ("shock" if you will, I wish there was a better way to express it) to the brain stem whcich has the centres for most subconscious functions like respiration, cardiovascular control, consciousness).

Another reason why there is no sound/speech possible in a decapitated head (apart from the one that there is no airflow through the larynx) is that the nerves which control the vocal cords (recurrent laryngeal nerves) take a circuitous route, passing down the neck before looping back up to the larynx again, and these are severed in a decapitation. No nerve, no phonation possible.
 
Bikewer said:
"Angel" managed to pull that one off as well, with the decapitated Host carrying on a conversation with Cordelia.
Click to expand...

(nerd)

Yeah, but that was in a different "dimension" with a species of being that had design capabilities allowing for decapitation without loss of life, as well as an assumed different vocal-chord design which would allow for speech without anything below the chin.

(/nerd)
 
Well, chickens are stone dumb, and there are those high-school biology experiments where you "pith" a frog by destroying the upper brain functions, leaving the stem to keep the poor critter alive....
 
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