I have tried to research this case study. This case study is the only report listing this patient. I would expect that if this therapy is generating notable improvement, it would be mentioned in other publications.

Even you said:
<It appears that there was no stimulation involved at all, so this would not be similar to a TENS therapy. Your comment regarding about the vegetative patient not being able to respond to neurofeedback is incorrect. It has been shown that vegetative patients can respond to neurofeedback because the subconscious brain is always trying to self regulate itself without the need of the conscious mind.>

If there was no stimulation involved, what was the therapy? No light stimulation, no electromagnetic stimulation, no electrical stimulation, no sound stimulation. How do they claim any change if there is no mechanism to promote such change?

Maybe you are confusing TENS with LENS therapy. TENS is Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It sure sounds like James was treated with a TENS like system. They treated him at C-3, C-4 and C-5. This was not neurofeedback. It was nerve stimulation not brain stimulation unless you consider an EMG type of stimulation and graphing to be brain stimulation. The equipment used to perform an EMG can measure existing nerve signals and generate nerve signals to be tracked further up the nerve bundle.

I have had this done to diagnose nerve dysfunction in my left hand, wrist, arm, shoulder and neck.

Sounds like they stimulated specific spinal nerves at C-3, C-4, and C-5 to excite them into signaling or opening the signaling pathway to the brain. This has more to do with neural patterning. If the brain has lost its memory of the signal pathways, this stimulation starts the brain at recognizing an open pathway. This is why they do physical therapy with repeated limb movements.

The positional nerve signals are sent to the brain and it begins to open these signal pathways to better understand this movement information. As this happens, the blood flow to the positional nerves also benefits the other nerve fibers in the same nerve bundle.

At 22 years old, the brain would have long since minimized or stopped this 'learning' function. When the brain has been in an extended state of coma with associated neuronal damage, it can 'forget' how to recognize nerve signals sent through the spinal cord. These inactive bundles can get lethargic and sort of hybernate.

These TENS like stimulations push a signal along the nerve fiber and bundles. This stimulates the specific nerves to increase their metabolism thus increasing their call for blood flow. This blood flow can reinvigorate other nerve fibers in the same bundle.

These signals, when received by the brain, are compared to images in memory in the brain. If the brain does not have an image in memory to compare this nerve signal to, it has to establish a new "image file" to use to interpret future signals.

It is similar to when someone buys a new car. They see their new VW beetle so often that the VW Beetle's image is prevalent in their brain. Now, as they drive down the road and other VW Beetles drive by, their brain quickly identifies them with the many VW Beetle images stored in memory. This makes the drive-by VW Beetles stick out in their mind.

All of the sensory and cognitive systems work this way. Memory is a comparison and linking system, not an intuitive system that just figures things out from scratch.

Memory can develop these images in as little as three repetitions. It takes 7 or more failures or over-writes to unlink or delete a linked image. The comatose person's brain likely was unable to recognize or link these nerve signals during the coma to the point that it deleted or unlinked the images.

Now, this new pushing of nerve signals is starting a new learning process. There may be stored memory images still functional so the linking may be all that is required to re-establish this image as recognizable. It is like walking a trail in the late spring that has overgrown since last fall. It becomes recognizable very quickly.

James' recovery of some function is remarkable but appears to coincide with others who recover these basic functions. I am sure his family are delighted to have some of James back.