Unconscious consciousness?

[Ciepher]

While my auntie was unconscious in hospital, her daughter and granddaughter came to visit her. Unfortunately, my cousin is not particularly good at controlling her toddler, and there was a lot of noisy behaviour around my auntie’s bed. My mum remarked that this was sad since my auntie might be able to hear what’s going on.

I’ve heard of this before and suspect that it’s a common ‘old wives’ tale’, but is there any evidence to suggest that a person who is unconscious can be aware of what’s going on around them?

I know that some people who appear to be unconscious are not (locked-in syndrome), and that people who are asleep can have varying levels of awareness of their surroundings, but can this also be true for ‘real’ unconsciousness such as coma or being under anaesthetic?

Could it be possible that the brain continues to ‘gather information’ from the senses during unconsciousness without the person being consciously aware of it?

[Der_Trihs]

As I understand it, yes, it’s possible. As I recall, patients under anesthesia for example on some level can hear what’s around them; negative comments can slow recovery, one assumes due to subconscious effects. And I recall experiments on people in comas, where at least some showed some physical responses associated with emotional response when they heard something that would normally produce such a response.

Being unconscious just means that the conscious aspects of your mind are shut down; there’s a whole lot more of it that may or may not be still taking in data.