The neuroscience of comas, or what it means to be trapped inside your own mind -- Locked-in syndrome (LIS) is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and blinking. The individual is conscious and sufficiently intact cognitively to be able to communicate with eye movements.[1] Total locked-in syndrome, or completely locked-in state (CLIS), is a version of locked-in syndrome wherein the eyes are paralyzed as well.[2][3] Fred Plum and Jerome Posner coined the term for this disorder in 1966.[4][5] Locked-in syndrome is also known as cerebromedullospinal disconnection,[6] de-efferented state, pseudocoma,[7] and ventral pontine syndrome.