Professor Tracey Shors provided the Richard D. Church Public Lecture in Neuroscience at St. Lawrence University this April.
Everyone experiences trauma. Whether it’s a specific harrowing event or a series of stressful moments that accumulate over time, trauma can echo and etch itself into our brains. In her lecture, neuroscientist Dr. Tracey Shors will discuss how our brains are inclined to ruminate on painful memories and how this process can interfere with our everyday lives, while making still more memories. She will also present effective tools for reducing repetitive thoughts that reinforce our everyday traumas. By understanding how our brains ruminate on the past, while training them with new mental and physical skills, we are better equipped to leave our pasts behind and live in a brighter future.
Tracey J. Shors, Ph.D. 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. With 150 scientific publications in journals including Nature, Science, PNAS and Nature Neuroscience, her work has 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 has published her new book: Everyday Trauma
