be taken in to consideration when choosing a course of treatment and determining a prognosis. in general, greater intensity leads to greater improvement. for duration, longer-term treatment produces more permanent changes. as for timing, beginning treatment too early may be difficult for the system which has not recovered enough to do intensive therapy, but beginning too late may result missing the window of the opportunity in which the most change can occur. neuroplasticity, the brain's natural ability to reorganize itself following a traumatic event, occurs best when treatment connects simultaneous events, maintains attention, taps into positive emotion, utilizes repetition tasks, and is specific to the individual's needs. other factors affecting prognosis includes location and site of lesion. since the lesion that results in tmoa usually occurs in the watershed area and does not directly involve the areas of the brain responsible for general language abilities, prognosis for these patients is good overall. other factors that determine a patient's prognosis include age, education prior to the stroke, gender, motivation, and support.