Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a tool that presents and assesses brain activity in real time by tracking the flow of oxygen-rich blood. In recent years, successive reports published in New England Medicine, nature, Science and Lancet have confirmed that: (i) near-normal conscious activity exists in the brains of some vegetative patients, who can even form communication with the outside world through fMRI; (ii) the level of conscious state and brain network activity on fMRI are significantly correlated; and (iii) patients with well-preserved neural networks have a better prognosis. A 2010 study by Professor Owen claimed that close to one-fifth of vegetative patients were able to communicate through brain activity. In the present study, we investigated the differences in brain function at resting state baseline between vegetative and normal subjects controls using resting state HD imaging. Differences in functional brain activity were found between PVS and normal subjects, with PVS patients showing reduced levels of activity in brain regions closely related to self-awareness and enhanced levels of activity in brain regions closely related to self-perception, with a seesaw relationship between the two systems. Our clinical studies as well as postoperative reviews have found that patients who have undergone surgical treatment and have regained consciousness or have improved from before are able to see the outside world again, indicating that the function of their visual perceptual system may be normal. Thus, the structure of the patient, although the patient is in a vegetative state, suggests that the function of their visual perceptual system is normal, and we hypothesize that it is caused by an abnormality in the function of the system or valve that controls it. In Laureys’ latest report, they found normal activity in the auditory system, whereas in our current study normal activity was found in the visual system. The publication of this study breaks the monopoly of five international research groups on the neurosurgery of vegetative man in this field and fills the gap in China, achieving international leading results. It provides imaging evidence for future research on the neurological mechanisms of vegetative individuals, in which the two major systems involve nuclei clusters that may be of great clinical research value as targets and rubrics for future clinical classification and surgery development.