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It's been 40 years since I took neurology. There is an area of the brain, just below the hytalamus, if I remember correctly, where a lesion will leave a person fully conscious, but incapable of voluntary movement. They do, however exhibit involuntary movements and reactions. These involuntary movements may be what people are seeing in her responsiveness. If so, she is quite conscious in the ordinary sense, just as you or I, but incapable of most voluntary movement. I saw a case such as this in a hospital in about 1957.