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Dear Editor,rnComa,the vegetative state (VS),and the minimally-conscious state (MCS),often collectively referred to as disorders of consciousness (DOCs),typically occur after severe traumatic or non-traumatic brain injury [1].The boundary between awareness and unawareness remains elusive,making it difficult to correctly distinguish MCS from VS patients.It is possible to employ noninvasive neuroimaging techniques,such as functional MRI (fMRI)[2] to assess residual cognitive processing as well as consciousness.However,the causal link between neural activity in specific brain areas and specific behavioral tasks is hard to dissect using fMRI [3].Therefore,detecting residual cognitive function and consciousness in patients surviving severe brain injury remains extremely challenging.