Last year I treated a woman who was in a minimally conscious state. This is what it's called when a brain has been so severely injured that it's hard to get more than primitive reflex responses from that person, and that person is able to perform only very basic behaviors, like reaching for an object that's wiggled in front of the face.
The woman I treated couldn't speak. She couldn't understand anything I was saying. But she could reach for the pink sparkling wand I waved in front of her face. She could hold her eyes open and sit in a chair. She could bob her head and her body up and down. That was about all she could do. When I held out my hand toward her to offer her a handshake, she grabbed at it like she was examining a rock or a piece of meat. I didn't do this, but if I would have screamed in her face at the top of my lungs, she probably would have just gone on bobbing up and down in her chair, only minimally aware of what was going on around her. She probably would have tried to grab at my face like it was just another object. The lights were on, but there's was nobody home. Then I turned some music on, a slow and smooth R&B song, and wouldn't you know it, she started swaying side to side in rhythm with the beat.
The woman I treated couldn't speak. She couldn't understand anything I was saying. But she could reach for the pink sparkling wand I waved in front of her face. She could hold her eyes open and sit in a chair. She could bob her head and her body up and down. That was about all she could do. When I held out my hand toward her to offer her a handshake, she grabbed at it like she was examining a rock or a piece of meat. I didn't do this, but if I would have screamed in her face at the top of my lungs, she probably would have just gone on bobbing up and down in her chair, only minimally aware of what was going on around her. She probably would have tried to grab at my face like it was just another object. The lights were on, but there's was nobody home. Then I turned some music on, a slow and smooth R&B song, and wouldn't you know it, she started swaying side to side in rhythm with the beat.