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This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
Christine Blasey Ford is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She reminded anyone listening of her scientific qualifications on September 27th when she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. California Senator Diane Feinstein is the questioner.
DF: "You were very clear about the attack. Being pushed into the room, you say you don't know quite by whom, but that it was Brett Kavanaugh that covered your mouth to prevent you from screaming. And then you escaped. How are you so sure that it was he?"
CBF: "The same way that I'm sure that I'm talking to you right now. It's just basic memory functions. And, also just the level of norepinephrine and epinephrine in the brain that, sort of, as you know, encodes, that neurotransmitter encodes memories into the hippocampus. And so, the trauma-related experience, then, is kind of locked there whereas other details kind of drift."
DF: "So what you are telling us is this could not be a case of mistaken identity?"
CBF: "Absolutely not."
