Going by the noteworthy findings of a new study, led by Martin M. Monti of the UK Medical Research Council, though patients in persistent “vegetative state” cannot signal any response to commands or questions, they are still aware of their own selves and their surroundings.

The findings by Monti and colleagues, that vegetative state patients can potentially learn to “speak” with their brains, are based on the observation of 54 patients who had undergone functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – a real-time brain scan – after having suffered from severe brain injury.

While 23 out of the 54 patients were diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, 31 were diagnosed as being in a minimally conscious state. It was found that though vegetative patients opened their eyes when awake and showed some muscle reflexes, they were unable to respond intentionally. On the other hand, patients in a minimally conscious state gave minimal, inconsistent responses to commands, but failed to communicate interactively.

By and large, only four vegetative patients and one minimally conscious patient actually showed any consequential brain activity on the MRI when prompted.

Elucidating the findings, Monti told WebMD: “If someone can produce a mental state on command, it is like having a language. We had 23 apparently vegetative patients, and four were really aware -- as we could tell by MRI.”