Some people in the study are getting sugar pills instead of real medication so scientists can compare the results. Neither the doctors nor the patients know who is getting what. The test drugs were chosen because scientists believe they stimulate the brain's ability to create new pathways around its damaged areas. Scientists refer to the brain's capacity for change as neural plasticity, or the notion that the brain is not a solid ball but a plastic sphere that can evolve as needed. It is not a new idea, though scientists long have believed the brain loses its ability to adapt with age.
Doctors now believe they can up the odds for older people.
Though the body's natural healing abilities will reach a limit, people can be pushed beyond that natural endpoint with the right therapies. It is too early to say whether the therapy is working, because researchers need several more years to finish the study and analyze its findings. Powell is one of the early subjects. She had her stroke in October 1999, when she woke up feeling as if the left half of her body was in cement. Her leg was dragging, her arm was hanging limp and the left side of her face was drooping.