A person can be conscious during a coma—just not in the way we usually understand consciousness. While coma typically brings to mind someone completely unconscious, lying still with no response to the world around them, science is revealing a far more mysterious and surprising reality. Research shows that some people who appear to be in a deep coma may actually have a form of “hidden consciousness.” In fact, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly one in four comatose patients showed signs of brain activity indicating awareness. These individuals might be unable to move, speak, or blink in response to questions, but their brains light up when asked to imagine doing certain tasks, like playing tennis or walking through their home.
Advanced tools like fMRI scans and EEG tests have made it possible to detect these subtle signs of awareness—signals that were missed entirely before. This matters a lot, not just medically, but ethically too. If doctors and families know someone is aware, even if they can’t show it, treatment plans and communication approaches may shift entirely. In rare cases, patients have later awoken and described hearing conversations around them during their coma.
It’s also worth noting the condition called locked-in syndrome, where a person is fully awake and aware but unable to move or speak—making them seem comatose when they’re not. The brain, it seems, can be conscious even when the body is completely still. We’re only beginning to understand the depths of the human mind in these silent, hidden states.
