locked-in syndrome

noun

: the condition of an awake and conscious patient who because of motor paralysis throughout the body is unable to communicate except possibly by coded eye movements

Trapped in their own bodies, the people who suffer from what is sometimes called locked-in syndrome are lucky if they can communicate their needs with a blink or a raised eyebrow.

—Discover

The locked-in syndrome results from brainstem lesions which disrupt the voluntary control of movement without abolishing either arousal or the content of awareness.

—Adam Zeman, The Lancet