The Neuroscience of Trauma

Your Guide to Understanding Trauma's Effects on the Prefrontal Cortex, Amygdala, and Hippocampus

The Prefrontal Cortex

The Prefrontal Cortex is located at the front of your brain, the rational, decision-making area, 

For those living with trauma the prefrontal cortex may be less active and according to research it has been shown that this can impede the learning of new information that could help you control your fear response 

The prefrontal cortex is crucial for fear control. Individuals who have experienced trauma might experience difficulty overriding the fight, flight, or freeze response, resulting in challenges with both controlling their fear response and engaging in logical thinking.

 When an individual's emotions are high their logic is low due to the prefrontal cortex switching off.

The amygdala

The amygdala Is a almond shaped mass located deep in the brain, it is Involved in the "fight or flight" response and plays a role in shaping our emotional reactions to various situations.

The Amygdala is responsible for processing emotions and emotional memories, and it becomes more sensitive after a traumatic experience

It stores trauma as sensory fragment without a rational story which makes it easily reactivated and strengthened

If you’re living with trauma, research shows that your amygdala doesn’t recognize the difference between a threat then and a threat now. So, when you’re reminded of a past experience, it responds exactly as it would if you were experiencing the traumatic event for the first time, sending out a rush of stress hormones, like cortisol.

When you get triggered, it's like your amygdala sends a signal to your body to react strongly, even if the situation might not actually be as serious as your brain thinks

The Hippocampus

The hippocampus is considered the learning center, including decision-making, planning, reasoning, and problem-solving

Research shows that the hippocampus is smaller and less active in people who’ve experienced trauma, which can create issues around memory and problem-solving.

This can make it hard for you to distinguish between the past and present, keeping you in a constant state of hypervigilance or strong emotional reactivity.

This is the part of the brain that processes emotions and memories. After trauma, stress hormones essentially kill off cells in the hippocampus, making it less effective at processing emotions.

This also makes it hard for the brain to distinguish between the past and the present.

Now, these changes to the hippocampus can also contribute to short-term memory loss. 

The connection between the hippocampus and the amygdala gets stronger, so essentially this maintains that fear response over time.

In the intricate dance between the mind and memory, the echoes of trauma can create a loop, binding the spirit to the pain of the past. Like a persistent melody, unresolved trauma can continuously play on,  keeping you bound and feeling trapped in the repetition of distressing narratives.

The Release Heal and Glow method allows you to break free from your past trauma, heal your core wound to get the results you desire even when nothing has worked!

We can not go back and change the past, we can not undo what has already been done but with the right techniques and support we can change how it's stored in the mind and body!