# Do decapitated heads briefly remain conscious? Cecil: No. Languille: You called? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 10, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128 "2003-12-10T12:16:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![armaghetto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@armaghetto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armaghetto)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/1 "2003-12-10T12:16:31Z")
So in this column: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_221a.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_221a.html) Cecil puts forth “…the fatal blow in a beheading induces immediate unconsciousness, even though the brain may not actually expire for several minutes.” Interestingly, there’s no mention of the tale of “Languille”, put forth by a certain Dr. Beaurieux in 1905. To make a long story short, a man named Languille was sentenced to the guillotine. When his head was lopped off, and after your standard twitching and facial twitches stopped, Dr. Beaurieux called out the man’s name. The eyelids opened and the pupils appeared to focus. After a few seconds, they eyelids closed and the doctor called his name out again. And again, the eyelids opened, appeared to focus and closed after a few seconds. The whole episode lasted about 30 seconds [http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/30sec.html](http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/30sec.html) [http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/prisons/methods\_of\_capital\_punishment.htm](http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/prisons/methods_of_capital_punishment.htm) Now this isn’t conclusive proof that when your head is chopped off that you retain conciousness for 30 seconds, but it does appear to be a check in the “maybe” column. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/2 "2003-12-10T13:58:45Z")
The column you referred to was updated: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5\_262.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_262.html) and Cecil concludes that, at least in some cases, it does indeed seem that severed heads remain conscious for a period of time. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/3 "2003-12-11T02:26:33Z")
…and I still doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![SkyCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SkyCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyCowboy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/4 "2003-12-11T03:22:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\*…and I still doubt it. \*\* Sam, Well, it works with chickens. Or at least it used to when I was small. When I was a kid we got live chickens from my Grandfather’s farm. And when we wanted to eat one, we first had to chop its head off with a hatchet\*. I remember being fascinated looking at the head laying in the grass, its eyes looking up at me and tracking my movements – at least for a few seconds. And yes, the chicken’s body does run around aimless for a few seconds w/o the head. Thus the expression, “Running around like a chicken with its head cutoff.” Best, Sky Then came taking out the entrails, dipping the chicken’s body in boiling water to loosen the feathers, and then plucking it. It made you appreciate where your fried chicken dinner came from. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/5 "2003-12-11T04:42:37Z")
**sky**. I’ll accept your memory that the head looked at you for _seconds_. Even though you were young and our memory of what happend is suspect when we’re young. I know for a fact mine was/is. The idea that a severed jead can have cognizant reflexes more than a paltry few seconds after decapitation has no basis in medical literature that I’ve found. It makes for a good story. The end. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/6 "2003-12-11T09:08:50Z")
This is one question I’d prefer _not_ to find out the definitive answer to … even if only for a few seconds! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/7 "2003-12-12T12:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > This is one question I’d prefer not to find out the definitive answer to … even if only for a few seconds! I often wonder why people are so shocked/fascinated by the possibilty of consciousness after decapitation. There seems to be no comparable reaction to other cases where people who are indisputably going to die remain conscious. People who have been shot or stabbed in the heart frequently retain full consciousness and are quite lucid for some seconds after the event. The same has been observed in people who have been disemboweled and even people who have been cut in to at the midsection have been known to regain consiousness and begin speaking again. People have consumed poisons that are untreatable and have remianed perfectly conscious for days after being told that they are going to die in terrible pain. All those injuries are fatal and the victims are able to remain conscious and with the full knowledge that they are going to die. And yet no one seems surprised or revolted. And yet the thought that a severed head that has just suffered a serious blow and is probably semi-conscious at best might still be alive somehow give the same people the willies. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![da\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@da\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/da_bear)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/8 "2003-12-12T13:23:37Z")
It may or may not be true that severed heads retain some awareness. What I want to know is what kind of awareness is possesed by our Commander in theif, aheh, excuse me, Commander in Chief. The man’s been walking through life just about oblivious up to now. In fact, the ‘chicken without the head’ seems to have more on the ball than this guy. All he knows how to do is give tax breaks to his rich buddies. Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/li_l_Dickie_Dirtz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/9 "2003-12-12T15:07:18Z")
Yeah, I have a thought: this isn’t the proper forum for that type of post. I’m not sure where it _does_ belong – **Great Debates** maybe, or **The Pit** – but it doesn’t go here. ---
**Author:** ![li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/li_l_Dickie_Dirtz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/10 "2003-12-12T17:21:13Z")
Oh, and welcome. Look around, you’ll find a home here somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/11 "2003-12-13T13:48:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Blake \* > \*\* > All those injuries are fatal and the victims are able to remain conscious and with the full knowledge that they are going to die. And yet no one seems surprised or revolted. And yet the thought that a severed head that has just suffered a serious blow and is probably semi-conscious at best might still be alive somehow give the same people the willies. > > I don’t get it. \*\* I think for me the difference is between knowing you’re _going_ to die, and knowing you _have_ died … there’s just no going back from decapitation, whereas with the other examples you gave maybe, just maybe, there’s hope … however remote? ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/12 "2003-12-13T14:24:51Z")
Add in the creep factor from knowing that while _you_ are lying here on this side of the guillotine, _your body_, once your constant companion and obedient minion, is now a few feet away and has nothing to do with you. ---
**Author:** ![narphonax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@narphonax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/narphonax)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/13 "2003-12-14T18:23:35Z")
It’s definitely the fanality of it. I remember (and this is coming out of left field, but bear with me) from a Stephen King novella–The Mist–that the narrator sees a body lying on the floor, and he says that he knew there was something wrong with it, just not what. Then, suddenly, he realized that the head was missing. He opines that something as final as that is just too much to process, too much for our meager constitutions to hold. Doc John [narphonax.com/docjohn/](http://narphonax.com/docjohn/) ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/14 "2003-12-15T15:41:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\ ***sky**. I’ll accept your memory that the head looked at you for _seconds_. Even though you were young and our memory of what happend is suspect when we’re young. I know for a fact mine was/is. > > The idea that a severed jead can have cognizant reflexes more than a paltry few seconds after decapitation has no basis in medical literature that I’ve found. > \*\* Should the default thinking be “no consciousness”? Or should the default thinking be “consciousness remains” and we need some medical literature to ? I can’t really think of a good reason why you wouldn’t remain conscious. So cecil writes “…anyway, the fatal blow in a beheading induces immediate unconsciousness…” That’s just answering the question by assertion. OK, in some cases, I imagine the shock from the blade could cause “immediate unconciousness” but I could see how a good clean cut just leaves your brain sitting there untouched, too. I can’t really see why you wouldn’t still have your brain parts firing away, producing thoughts such as, “well, my head’s cut off and I suppose I’m going to die” or “I don’t feel so hungry any more.” I don’t think you need your heart and spine in order to think. Cutting off blood and oxygen isn’t immediate, like cutting through the phone cord to your house. I’d think your whole head would serve as a pretty good capacitor. So, while there may not be any medical literature supporting the notion that consciousness remains, I don’t really see why that’s the assumption that has to be supported. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/15 "2003-12-16T05:03:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Cutting off blood and oxygen isn’t immediate, like cutting through the phone cord to your house. I’d think your whole head would serve as a pretty good capacitor. And that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it. I contend that you might have enough blood/oxygen for less than ten seconds worth of ability to think what we would call “normal” thoughts. Perhaps even less that ten seconds. And that doesn’t take into account any problems caused by the sudden loss of your support systems(aka ‘body’). The shock factor would likely produce a shut down of your brain even sooner, at least that would appear logical to me. Someone needs to present this question to a medical board, and get answers from people who just might have some research experience. ---
**Author:** ![The\_PHB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@The\_PHB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_PHB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/16 "2003-12-22T14:42:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Someone needs to present this question to a medical board, and get answers from people who just might have some research experience. Hmmm… good idea, but… It seems we’re all agreed that, if consciousness does remain after decapitation, it probably doesn’t last for very long. Which makes me wonder just how one might go about researching this issue. I understand that it’s quite commonplace for medical schools to advertise for students to supplement their incomes by participating in clinical trials. But even allowing for the lamentable standards in our education system these days, I can’t see too many students signing up to be decapitated. ---
**Author:** ![ronbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@ronbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ronbo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/17 "2003-12-23T05:44:46Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Trunk \* > \*\* I’d think your whole head would serve as a pretty good capacitor._\* Unfortunately our consciousness needs a constant supply of power through oxygen and glucose. It does not store static energy. The fuel reserve to our consciousness is used up [seconds](http://health.howstuffworks.com/brain-death1.htm) after the supply ends. Just as RAM is lost when the power fails, so goes our consciousness. Anybody that has fainted has experienced how fast it occurs. You realize something is happening…too late, it happened. Nowhere near enough time to respond. Judo students are taught resuscitation techniques. When both of the Carotid arteries, are blocked, feinting, occurs very quickly. Rendering your opponent unconscious is considered a win. The best ways to do this are taught. Undoing it is also taught. I understood that it to occurred regularly in competitions. I was taught that unconsciousness could talk as little as three seconds. This fits the quote. I have not witnessed and never tested this assertion, but have no reason not to believe it. Any Judo students out there? ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/18 "2003-12-23T06:22:28Z")
That sounds something like the classic “sleeper hold” in wrestling, **ronbo**. Wherein you apply pressure to the carotid area of the neck, and the nerves running next to the carotid artery, which I believe are called the carotid sinus nerves, interpret the outside pressure as a huge spike in blood pressure, which is what they normally monitor (changes in blood pressure). So the nerves send out a panic signal saying “Yipe! The blood pressure is way too high! Heart, drastically slow down! Arteries, dilate wildly!” and, as a result, blood pressure plunges instantly (and remember, blood pressure _wasn’t_ high to begin with – that was just a trick caused by the sleeper hold). And if the person applying the sleeper hold does it right, the calamitous drop in blood pressure causes almost immediate loss of consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/19 "2003-12-30T18:23:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chorpler \* > \*\*That sounds something like the classic “sleeper hold” in wrestling, **ronbo**. Wherein you apply pressure to the carotid area of the neck, and the nerves running next to the carotid artery, which I believe are called the carotid sinus nerves, interpret the outside pressure as a huge spike in blood pressure, which is what they normally monitor (changes in blood pressure). > > So the nerves send out a panic signal saying “Yipe! The blood pressure is way too high! Heart, drastically slow down! Arteries, dilate wildly!” and, as a result, blood pressure plunges instantly (and remember, blood pressure _wasn’t_ high to begin with – that was just a trick caused by the sleeper hold). And if the person applying the sleeper hold does it right, the calamitous drop in blood pressure causes almost immediate loss of consciousness. \*\* Ha!! I just happened to look up this article about three minutes ago for completely unrelated reasons. BTW, that’s “Ha!!” as in “ha-ha-ho-ho, very funny indeed” not “Ha!!” as in “up yours, you ignorant bastard!” because the article discusses exactly the thingie you describe: The whatcha-ma-dealie gets thinga-ma-bob’ed and you die. As she says, > [@](#): > > The bradycardia one means that if you’re choking just the right spot very high and fairly lateral on the neck, up behind the sternocleidomastoid muscle and only an inch lower than the jawbone, you may accidentally put your thumb on the sensor located in the wall of the carotid where it divides into internal and external branches. That sensor is there to tell the heart to slow down if the blood pressure going into the brain is too high. If you push hard enough on the vessel and up the pressure in it, the sensor tells the heart, “Whoa! We gotta surge of 80 mm Hg in here! Back it off!” And the heart obediently slows down to nothing, at which point it can start to fibrillate and you die. The reason this is rare is dual. Number one, the sensor is small and hard to get to, so it’s chance if you happen to be over it. Number two, young people with resilient arteries are almost all resistant to this reaction to carotid compression. Old people with hardened arteries are much more susceptible. However, this has been thought to be the genesis of death in cases in which the perpetrator confessed, “I was mad at her, yeah, and I took her throat in my hands, but honest to God I didn’t do anything! She just went limp the instant I touched her!” and the autopsy is negative. So this is always something to bear in the back of your mind when practicing chokes: if your partner is the one in a thousand whose arteries aren’t resistant to this, and if you hit exactly the right spot, they could go limp in your hands and die without your even achieving a good choke. Scary. The other good news in the article: Being hanged ain’t a bad way to go. (For completeness’s sake: [www.judoinfo.com/chokes1.htm](http://www.judoinfo.com/chokes1.htm) ) ---
**Author:** ![greenphan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@greenphan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenphan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128/20 "2004-01-09T08:01:27Z")
Albert Camus wrote about the case in the OP in his essay “Reflections on the Guilotinne”, which was co-written but I’m too tired to look it up. The essay includes several other similar cases, where bodyless heads appeared to be concious after they were severed from the body. The biggest problem with this issue, that undercuts anecdotal evidence such as the death of Languille, is that it is impossible to tell for certain whether life-like actions after decapitation are reflexive or signs of conciousness. What sort of medical experiment could determine whether someone is “aware”, even before their head is lobbed off? This issue, I feel, is unsolvable, like whether someone standing five feet from a nuclear explosion feels pain; how can you tell? It’s all guess-work, really, from Dr. Guillotine’s assertion that the condemened feeling nothing but cold air to Cecil saying it renders immediate unconciousness. Then honestly, in the case of the use of the guillotine, does it really matter whether the condemned remain concious? They’ve been sentenced to death and the guillotine, although gruesome, seems more humane than other modes of execution. For instance, there have been cases where those sentenced to die in the electric chair have had to have been “re-juiced” because the initial jolt wasn’t enough. BEWARE! A PUN FOLLOWS: I guess this isn’t really an issue where we should lose our heads… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious-cecil-no-languille-you-called/218128.md?page=2)