Slideshow: The Mysteries of Mental Age

Surgically altered so she'll stay forever childlike, a brain-damaged girl supposedly possesses the mentality of a baby. But how do her doctors know? By Randy Dotinga.
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Ashley in 2000.Photo: Courtesy of The "Ashley Treatment"

See related story: The Mysteries of Mental Age

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Ashley sits in her wheelchair in 2006.

Photo: Courtesy of The "Ashley Treatment"
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Ashley in 1998.

Photo: Courtesy of The "Ashley Treatment"