http://www.slate.com/id/2149182/

No mention in the article about what they are going to do with the patient.

We need our minds backed up on optical media. Stat.

This is a major reason why I will make sure everyone in my family knows to put me to death in such a circumstance.  In my worst of worst nightmares, I am trapped in a body that cannot move.

Yeah, in my family we've all got orders for unfiltered cigarettes and cheap booze in massive quantities for just such a situation.  Cancer and liver disease is a slow exit strategy, but it beats no exit strategy.

I wonder if people like that can feel touch.

Apparently the can hear, so some of the senses work.
Who knows about touch, taste, smell or sight.
Maybe the inability to lift an eyelid or focussing keeps them from seeing?

I really don't want to think about this.

"Since its inception, fMRI has been strongly criticised, both as a research technique and in the way its results have been interpreted"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fmri

Just as the "Lie Detector", or polygraph is junk science and worthless. Sometimes I wonder about the 'journalists' who write this crap. Are they manipulateive or just plain dumb?

They should have tested that too.

It can happen if the part of the brainstem/spine that sends signals TO the body is damaged. Though normally you have control over your eyes in that case because those go along a different pathway.

The fun part is, these people are much, much calmer than you'd expect because the brain can't send the signal to the body to start to freak out - sweat, butterflies in the stomach, increased heart rate, etc.