Sexual Assault and the Brain

Understanding the brain under attack, and implications for justice and healing.

Jim Hopper, Ph.D.

Why Christine Blasey Ford Can’t Remember How She Got Home

Stress and trauma have time-dependent effects on the hippocampus and memory, not just enhancing central over peripheral details, but eventually leading to a minimal-encoding phase.

Why Incomplete Sexual Assault Memories Can Be Very Reliable

Incomplete memories of sexual assault, including those with huge gaps, are understandable—if we learn the basics of how memory works and we genuinely listen to survivors.

Why It's Time for Sexual Assault Self-Defense Training

Not victim blaming, not just physical skills, but proven ways to resist assault and coercion, especially habits of owning sexual desires, values, and rights.

Freezing During Sexual Assault and Harassment

Understanding the neurobiology of freezing can be very helpful – in making sense of one’s own experiences, supporting others, and investigating or prosecuting.

Sexual Assault and Neuroscience: Alarmist Claims vs. Facts

A misleading article in the Atlantic provides an opportunity to clarify key facts about the well-established neurobiology of stress and trauma.

In Most Sexual Assaults, “Defense Circuitry” Runs the Show

We need to know this circuitry and its impacts, even if it doesn’t sound as cool as “amygdala.”

The Brain Under (Sexual) Attack

Is the brain’s response to being attacked basically the same, whether the attack is a sexual assault, physical assault, or enemy fire in military combat?