How Persistent is it?

An interesting article on "persistent vegetative state".

"four of the seven patients showed cerebral activation in response to sound"

"the researcher tells SINC 'although they look or cry, we do not know whether or not the patient is processing the information, whether they do it automatically or whether they do it consciously.'"

I'm not sure how "automatic crying" works... is that like "automatic writing"?

"Studies such as this one do not make it possible to conclude that the patients 'understand' language in the way that healthy people do"

I guess it depends on how you understand "understand"?