Steven Laureys: is anyone home inside a coma patient?

Last time, we saw how consciousness and top-down attention can be pulled apart. This time, we'll pull apart two parts of consciousness: awareness and wakefulness, following Steven Laureys, a neurologist who studies disorders of consciousness.

Awareness: content of the consciousness.

Wakefulness: level of consciousness.

Their study is arguably the most medically relevant part of the study of consciousness, since there are many people in coma-like states, who have a normal sleep-wake cycle, but seems to have no awareness. Figuring out if they are aware is important for figuring out how much personhood they still have.

Warning: contains one brain selfie.