California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford gave a scientific defense of her memory on the night of an alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, in testimony before senators on Thursday.
Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University and research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said there was “absolutely not” a case of mistaken identity.
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Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ford cited an “indelible” memory of certain details, stored in her brain’s hippocampus after the alleged early 1980s incident.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pressed Ford on her memory, saying, “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?
“The same way that I am sure I am talking to you right now,” Ford said. “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.”
Ford says she cannot recall some details, such as the exact location of the gathering, how she got there, and how she returned home. She also says there was a boy present whose name she cannot recall.
Ford publicly accused Kavanaugh last week and her testimony is the first time the public has seen her on camera. She claims Kavanaugh groped her and attempted to remove her clothes during a party, pinning her to a bed and covering her mouth in a way that made her fear for her life.
Ford alleges that Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh assaulted her, and that both he and Kavanaugh laughed during the incident. Both Kavanaugh and Ford deny her allegation.
“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter. The uproarious laughter between the two. And they’re having fun at my expense,” she told senators.
Ford rejected a theory that there may be a cases of mistaken identity, saying she was 100 percent sure it was Kavanaugh.
[Also read: Fox News’ Chris Wallace: Ford’s testimony a ‘disaster’ for GOP]
