Neurologists are also exploring the possibility of implanting stimulators (sold now by Medtronic for Parkinson's disease) deep in the brains of the minimally conscious to boost thalamus activity.

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When neuroscientists talk about the link between neural activity and conscious thoughts, he says, they're not claiming that the bits of the brain that light up in scans are synonymous with the mind.

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Hirsch and Schiff figured that the minimally conscious brains would show some activity in response to stimuli, but not a lot.

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But I think it needs to be more of a conscious thought that both physical activity and sleep are important factors for young to middle-aged women.

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The hype has increased in the last few decades since functional neuro-imaging has enabled scientists to observe directly the activity in the brains of conscious subjects exposed to certain stimuli or engaging in different tasks.

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Researchers are only just beginning to study minimally conscious patients, but already they have found surprising hints of brain activity.

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All of their brain activity is occurring in areas that are lower down and require much less conscious control.

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