Everyday Trauma: Learning to Forget (Tracey Shors, Ph.D.)

July 23, 2024
NextGen Discovery Series
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"Everyday Trauma: Learning to Forget"
Speaker: Tracey Shors, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience, Vice Chair/Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of Psychology, Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, Rutgers
Location: Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building, Atkins Family Seminar Room, University of Missouri in Columbia
Description
Exploring how trauma impacts the brain, especially for women--and how we can learn to heal ourselves. Neuroscientist Dr. Tracey Shors examines trauma with a focus on its pervasive nature--how it can happen at any time, through big or small events, and how it often reappears in the form of encoded memory. Her research reveals that when we are reminded of our trauma, reliving that tragic moment copies yet another memory of it in our brain, making it that much more difficult to forget. Dr. Shors also explores the neuroscience behind why women in particular are more vulnerable to stress and traumatic events, setting them up to be three times more likely than men to suffer PTSD. With potential long-term consequences such as addiction, anxiety, depression, and PTSD, trauma can have a lasting impact on both the brain and body. Dr. Shors illuminates the effective tools that can reduce the repetitive thoughts that reinforce our traumas, including cognitive-based therapies and trauma-informed care such as her own groundbreaking program, a combination of mental and physical training called MAP Training.
About the Speaker
Dr. Tracey Shors is Distinguished Professor in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers University. Dr. Shors has 150 scientific publications in journals including Nature, Science, PNAS and Nature Neuroscience. Her research findings have been featured in Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on NPR and CNN. Her research efforts were recently recognized with W. Horsley Gantt Medal from the Pavlovian Society for the "noble pursuit of truth." Macmillan and Flatiron Press published her popular book about stress and trauma: Everyday Trauma. She is also the creator of the evidence-based brain fitness program MAP TRAIN MY BRAIN.