Unresponsive ICU Patients May Understand Verbal Commands

A New England Journal of Medicine study shows that one in six clinically unresponsive ICU patients showed electroencephalography (EEG) patterns of brain activity when spoken to soon after acute brain injury. The researchers note that the rate would likely have been higher had they been able to measure brain activity with MRI.

This shows "covert cognition" or "cognitive-motor dissociation" - activation of cerebral neural circuits for perception of commands that is not accompanied by corresponding motor responses.