Does the head remain briefly conscious after decapitation?

In the answer about the guillotine in your online archive, you say that "the fatal blow induces immediate unconsciousness." In actuality, the human head does remain conscious fifteen to twenty seconds after decapitation. This was proven when a scientist condemned to the guillotine in the 1700s told his assistant to watch and that he would blink as many times as he could. The assistant counted fifteen to twenty blinks after the head was severed, the blinks coming at intervals of about one second. So the head does remain briefly alive.