08/02/2025
🧠 AMYGDALA ACTIVITY INCREASES
The amygdala acts as an alarm signal
for stressful events to help protect
us from danger. Trauma can cause the
amygdala to stay overactive, which can
lead to feelings of being in danger when
we’re not.
🧠 HIPPOCAMPUS SHRINKS
The hippocampus helps with learning
and memory storage, including how to
stay safe. Trauma may cause this area
to shrink. Cues to calm the amygdala
are weakened, which may cause
flashbacks or confusion around the
trauma memory.
🧠 PREFRONTAL CORTEX SHRINKS
This area manages decision-making, reasoning, thoughts, and helps us control our emotional response to events. Normally, this area helps us decide that a situation is okay. Trauma can weaken the signals from this area, allowing negative emotions from the trauma memory to take over the pre-frontal cortex’s reasoning ability.
💡 EMDR therapy helps the brain process traumatic memories, allowing improved healing communication to resume. After successful EMDR therapy, the fight, flight, or freeze response from the traumatic event is resolved.
