Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' recovery hinges on her brain's "plasticity"

[Yahoo! News]

Tucson suspect charged with murders of judge, aide

AP - Federal prosecutors on Friday announced new charges against the suspect in the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, accusing him of killing six people and wounding 13 others who were exercising the fundamental American "right to meet freely, openly and peaceably with their member of Congress."

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U.S. Marshal's Service

FILE - This combination of file photos released Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, by the U.S. Marshal's Service shows Jared Loughner . The suspect in the Tucson shootings that critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was charged on new counts that include the murders of a federal judge and a congressional aide, according to an indictment released Friday, March 4, 2011.

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Experts say Gabrielle Giffords needs year to show progress

Soon after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords emerged from brain trauma surgery, her doctors lauded her recovery from a gunshot wound as "miraculous." Three Democratic lawmakers, citing the "incredible strides" she has made since the Jan. 8 shopping-center shootings, say they will host a campaign fundraiser on March 15 for the 2012 election.

Giffords' recovery hinges on her brain's "plasticity," its power to lay down new nerve circuits capable of taking over duties performed by those destroyed by the bullet, Ashley and other experts say. It will take hard work and repetition to retrain her brain in this way, compressing a process that usually takes place over decades of growth and development into, at most, a year or two.

"It's the intensity of repetition that reprograms the brain," Ashley says.

The window of opportunity lasts a year or two, while the brain is healing; after that, the pace of improvement drops dramatically, he says.

Only Giffords' husband can authorize the release of information under the federal Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Since Giffords' transfer to TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, where she's being treated, her doctors have been all but silent about the details of her case.

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