IANANeuroscientist (yet?, wish me luck), so I don't really know how science experiments on brains. Is it simple observation of brain physiology, or do they actually "zap" it a little and see what neural pathways are activated?
If it gets zapped, an interesting philosophical question arises. If consciousness is an emergent property of a neural network, then would activating a small network bring some small fraction of consciousness to a brain? I realize that if this was the case, it would be on a very low level, maybe not even comparable to the lowest vertebrates. I also realize perception is immeasurable, but if, while alive, I can retrieve a memory and re-experience a stimulus, could a dead brain "remember" things that had been stored to memory while living? Could new memories be created?