Many "vegetative" patients are conscious and responsive

"Cognitive-motor dissociation" complicates the prognosis of unresponsive patients

Patients who become persistently encephalopathic after the resolution of severe illness (e.g., brain injury due to trauma, ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke) enter a liminal state of existence while those around them decide their fate.

It’s been widely assumed that people with no response to verbal commands experience are effectively cut off from the world …