(AgapePress) - A new brain-imaging study recently published in the journal Neurology suggests that thousands of brain-injured people who are treated as if they have lost all awareness may actually hear and register their surroundings, but they are not able to respond.

Not only could these findings have extensive implications for patient care, they could also weigh heavily in court when it comes to cases that dispute the mental state of what appears to be a vegetative patient.

This brain-imaging technology is known as magnetic resonance imaging, and, according to the research, it could prove to be a powerful tool for family members and doctors as they seek to determine a patient's level of mental engagement.

However, other experts view the findings as more suggestive than conclusive, meaning the study should not be interpreted as imposing an increased chance of patient recovery or treatment. On the other hand, the experts agreed the findings opened a window to an area that has been neglected by medical research.

"This is extremely important work, for that reason alone," said Dr. James Bernat, a professor of neurology at Dartmouth. Bernat believes such findings are relevant to cases such as those of Terri Schiavo and Sarah Scantlin.

Schiavo is the brain-damaged Florida woman who has been kept alive for a number of years despite her estranged husband's apparent desire to end her life by withholding food and water. She is near death now after a court-ordered removal of her feeding tube on March 18. Scantlin is a Kansas woman who suffered a critical head injury over 20 years ago and recently started regaining her memory and showing verbal responsiveness.

"The most consequential thing about this [study] is that we have opened a door, we have found an objective voice for these patients, which tells us they have some cognitive ability in a way they cannot tell us themselves," said Dr. Joy Hirsch, director of the Functional MRI Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center and the study's senior author.

These patients are "more human than we imagined in the past, and it is unconscionable not to aggressively pursue research efforts to evaluate them and develop therapeutic techniques," she added.