There is no agreement as to where the limits of consciousness lie, or even if these putative
borders exist. Problems inherent to the study of consciousness continue to confound efforts
to establish a universally accepted theory of consciousness. Consequently, clinical
definitions of consciousness and unconsciousness are unavoidably arbitrary. Recently, a
condition of severely altered consciousness has been described, which characterizes the
borderzone between the vegetative state and so-called “normal” consciousness. This …