NEW YORK, Sept 9: An important medical study has concluded that ‘a severely brain-damaged woman in an unresponsive, vegetative state showed clear signs on brain imaging tests that she was aware of herself and her surroundings.

The finding could have far-reaching consequences for how unconscious patients are cared for and how their conditions are diagnosed.

According to the New York Times, the patients brain flared with activity, lighting the same language and movement-planning regions that are active when healthy people hear the commands.

Previous studies had found similar activity in partly conscious patients, who occasionally respond to commands, but never before in someone who was totally unresponsive.

The report said neurologists had cautioned that the new report was relevant to a specific, perhaps unique case and that it did not mean unresponsive brain-damaged people were likely to recover.