Gabby Giffords on music’s therapeutic role in rewiring the brain, after being shot ten years ago

“In 2011, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head outside of Tucson,” writes Jeffrey Brown in Thursday’s (4/8) PBS. “Giffords has become a fierce advocate for ending gun violence, and is [on] own her own quest to live a rich life and rewire her brain…. For this amateur musician, [the French Horn] represents a kind of miracle…. In addition to paralysis, she suffered an impairment called aphasia…. Last August, she gave a rousing speech titled ‘Summoning Hope’ at the Democratic National Convention [and] played ‘America’ on the French horn. [Having first begun playing the instrument at age 13,] she’d picked up the instrument again … and incorporated it into her regular regime of therapy and rebuilding…. ‘It’s all still there in my brain. Reading the music is hard,’ says Giffords.… Carolyn Sturm, a retired professional French horn player and teacher now living in Tucson, … volunteered to work with her…. ‘We also used neurologic music therapy, because … the language center is connected to other parts of the brain that can help recover … speech [and] cognition and movement,’ says Dr. Gerard Francisco, chief medical officer of Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston.”