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Christine Blasey Ford has relied heavily on her background in psychology by giving moving testimony to her alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh.
Ford, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and Palo Alto University, used his scientific expertise to answer Senator Dianne Feinstein's and others' questions about her allegations that Kavanaugh's Pushed on a bed, covered her mouth and tried to remove her clothes. the intention to rape her, during an evening at Maryland High School in the 1980s. Ford also stated that a second person, Mark Judge, was in the room at that time and could have pushed her on the bed.
Kavanaugh denied Ford's claims, as well as charges of sexual misconduct brought by two other women.
When Senator Feinstein asked, "How are you so sure it was him?", Ford said that she could be sure of Kavanaugh's identity "in the same way that I I am sure to speak to you now "an explanation of the chemistry of the brain. Ford explained that epinephrine, a neurotransmitter, "codes memories in the hippocampus and that trauma-related experience is stuck there, while other details drift," a- she declared.
TIME Health Report
Experts say that during trauma, the brain selects for salient details. Research shows that norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter released in response to stress or emotional arousal, allows the brain to focus on certain things and eliminate them from others, says Charan Ranganath, director. from the Memory and Plasticity program at the University of California at Davis. (Ranganath is not involved in the confirmation process of Kavanaugh.) "People tend to think of memory as all-or-nothing – as if you remember everything, or your entire memory," says Ranganath. "Neuromodulators such as norepinephrine may change what will be a priority, so it is very possible that some aspects of an event can be kept and recalled accurately for long periods of time, while others, less important, may be lost.
You can think of increasing the contrast on your TV, says Ranganath. "If the contrast is low, you can see everything, even if some things are brighter than others," he says. "But if you increase the contrast, you will find that some things are very bright and everything else is hard to see."
As a result, the brain tends to bring out "the most prominent things," which allows it to store these details clearly, while others are no longer in focus or weaken over time.
Ranganath also compares the phenomenon to the visualization of a film and later to the relationship between a plot and a friend: you would probably think of telling them about the most dramatic scene, but not about the color of the carpet or the sofa. leather. the scene takes place.
In her testimony, Ford stated that she was satisfied that Kavanaugh was the person who assaulted her, but she said she could not remember details such as the exact date of the party or how she returned. at home after.
Asked by Senator Patrick Leahy about his strongest memory of that night, for example, Ford said, "Laughter is indelible in the seahorse. [men]and have fun at my expense. (The hippocampus is a part of the brain involved in memory storage.)
"The way we remember things is that we tell stories," says Ranganath. "The fact that someone laughed during this traumatic event would be something that really stands out."
Kavanaugh not only denied attacking Ford, but also that he was at the party that night. Ford also stated that Kavanaugh was visibly drunk at the party; he denied ever drinking much as a young man.
Regardless of the peculiarities of this case, Ranganath says that it is indisputable that alcohol disrupts the memory.
"Alcohol changes what you pay attention to. Alcohol affects your retention of this information, "he says. "These mental states can play a huge role in what you remember … and make it more difficult to remember these events in detail."
Ford also discussed other psychological principles during her interrogation, including her experience of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she referred to in her testimony by the scientific term sequelae or sequelae. of a trauma. Asked by Attorney Rachel Mitchell, Ford discussed how the alleged incident may have contributed to these conditions.
"The etiology of anxiety and PTSD is multifactorial. [The incident] was definitely a critical risk factor. This would be a predictor of the [conditions] that I have now, "Ford said. "I can not rule out that I would have a biological predisposition to be an anxious type person."
Later, Ford added that traumatic experiences that occur early in life may be more psychologically damaging than those that occur later in life, as the brain continues to develop. This phenomenon has been widely documented in the scientific literature.
Ford also said that she could escape the so-called aggression due to fight or flight, the stress response mechanism and survival that allows humans to cope with threatening situations. Research suggests that the struggle or flight can be triggered by a series of stressors, from those who really threaten life – as Ford said she feared her alleged aggression was – to those who are more minors.
"I really felt the atmosphere of fighting or flight," Ford said. "I was definitely experiencing a surge of cortisol and adrenaline and epinephrine," in keeping with this answer.
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