Deepu Murty | Associate Professor, Chair of the Committee for an Inclusive Community
Psychology | University of Oregon

"Understanding, Remembering, and Communicating Threatening Events"

Threat alters how we represent information. Under threat, individuals tend to prioritize central details at the expense of surrounding contextual information—a shift that reflects and drives changes in medial temporal lobe (MTL) and cortical network dynamics. This talk will explore how threat reshapes the neural architecture supporting event comprehension, which has downstream consequences on how this information is stored in long-term memory. Moreover, we will show how these shifts in brain networks change how threatening experiences are communicated to others. By examining the interplay between emotion, memory, and social dynamics, we highlight mechanisms through which threat can distort shared understanding and social transmission of information. These findings have broad implications for domains ranging from eyewitness testimony to psychotherapy, which both rely on the accurate communication of threatening events.

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NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.