This week we’re tackling how trauma affects information processing. This is a beast to unpack, so stay with me, folks. However, before we get into the meat of this analysis, let’s start from the beginning. What is information processing? And while we’re at it, we should probably explore trauma as well.  

Let’s start with information processing. The video below by the Association of American Medical Colleges and Khan Academy provides a helpful overview of information processing. In short, information processing is what allows our brains to store information for us to access later.

Information processing starts with deciding what information is important to process. Zaretta Hammond, in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain, explains that the reticular activating system in the lower part of our brain helps complete this task. Next, the information that the brain decides to process moves to the limbic brain, specifically the hippocampus, to be stored in short term memory. The information can fade from there or move to the elaboration stage. This is also called working memory, the place where our brain can put the information on a “tabletop” and organize it to remember later on. In this stage, the brain is working to make neural connections between existing information and the new information. The last stage, as Hammond describes, is application, in which the brain is working to strengthen the neural connections from the new learning. It is in this stage that students must use the information or lose it, or as Hammond explains in terms of neuroscience:

“The brain is working hard to turn those neurons’ new dendrites into a permanent neural pathway. We have 24-48 hours to revisit, review, and apply what we have learned in order to make it permanent and move it to long-term memory where it becomes part of our skill set, background knowledge, or conceptual understanding”

Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain (2015, p. 125-127)

Alright, set that information on the tabletop of your working memory. We’ll come back to it in a bit. The neuroscience tells me I’ve got about 20 minutes before we need to apply it to cement it.

For now, let’s turn to trauma. Trauma is more difficult to pin down, and even therapists and professionals working in the field of trauma seem to disagree on a single definition. Stephen Joseph,  Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham (2012), contends that there are two schools of thought regarding trauma: trauma can be described as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience, encompassing events from “everyday life,” or trauma can be defined more specifically as an event “involving actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others, and which involved fear, helplessness, or horror.” For the purposes of this investigation, we aren’t going to dive into which definition is right or wrong—rather, it’s important to know that there are some murky waters in this discussion.

Trauma therapist, Odelya Gertel Kraybill, takes this one step further and dives into developmental trauma which she defines as trauma that occurs early in life, disrupting normal sequences of brain development and the subsequent cognitive, emotional, physical and social development (2019). Because we are a group of educators, after all, let’s spend our time here—unpacking how early-in-life trauma affects the brain.

Kraybill explains that the brain is meant to develop like a ladder—meaning the healthy development of the lower part of our brains, responsible for survival and stress response, paves the way for the development of the higher parts of our brains, responsible for executive functioning like problem solving or exercising moral judgement. When trauma occurs while lower parts of the brain are still developing, foundational steps for the healthy development of our higher brains are missing.

Others in the field seem to agree. Corey Teague (2009), in his dissertation examining academic achievement and trauma, adds that because trauma occurring in childhood disrupts critical development milestones, trauma among children can have much more complex outcomes than trauma occurring in adulthood. He goes further to say that two crucial parts of the brain affected by trauma are the amygdala and hippocampus which, we learned above, play important roles in information processing (p. 41).

Now we can start to see the connection between these two concepts. Information processing begins with the reticular activating system sending a message to our limbic system. Great. However, Kraybill explained that trauma occurring during the development of our lower brain (the reticular activating system) affects later development, and Teague explained that trauma affects two major components of our limbic system—the amygdala and the hippocampus. If the reticular activating system is in charge of input and the limbic system is in charge of short term and working memory, then it is clear how trauma during the development of these systems has the potential to put the whole information processing system off kilter.

Additional scientific research supports this argument. In research published last year, a team of researchers measured brain waves among young females with Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), a condition that can develop after experiencing trauma (Han, C., Park, M., Lee, J., Jung, H. Y., Park, S. M., & Choi, J., 2018). The study was targeting the P300 brainwave, as it reflects neural activity related to working memory processes. The researchers found that the amplitude of the P300 brainwave was reduced significantly among the participants with ASD, compared to the control participants. The team concluded that these findings indicate that there are information processing deficits among patients with ASD, suggesting that young people who experience trauma may not process information at the same capacity as their peers who have not experienced trauma. (Stay tuned later for a discussion on improving the deficit-based language seen here.)

Alright, so we’ve gotten pretty deep into this inquiry, but what does this all mean for educators? Teague explains why this presents a problem specifically for educators:

“One of the main goals of education is for the child to process information presented to him in a manner that allows him to retrieve that same information at a later date.” 

Corey Teague (2009)

So, I am left wondering:

What now?

Shawn Ginwright, Professor at San Fransisco State University, in his article The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement explains that the term “trauma-informed care” has gained popularity as a way to support students who have experienced trauma, describing the philosophy as a necessary change from policies such as discipline and suspension that further harm such students. Trauma-informed care looks to support the person instead of the symptoms, through restorative practices such as therapy or counseling. And while trauma-informed care is an essential shift from previous policies, Ginwright argues that it doesn’t go far enough.

He argues that trauma-informed care runs the risk of reducing students to their trauma and harm rather than seeing a whole person capable of healing and possessing potential. Trauma-informed care also looks at the experience as an individual problem, rather than a collective experience that requires healing among neighborhoods, families, schools and communities. Ginwright offers an alternate philosophy, called healing-centered, “involving culture, spirituality, civic action and collective healing.” Healing-centered involves changing the way we look at trauma, and moving into an asset-based approach, rooted in a deep belief that culture, identity and interconnectedness have power. The approach also puts an emphasis on changing the systems that create trauma, tackling the issue as political rather than clinical. In his article, Ginwright gives more examples of what a healing-centered approach looks like, offering an important and necessary resource for anybody working with youth. Check it out and give it a full read.

Alright, you made it through! Come back again in a day if you really want to hold on to what you’ve learned. Comment below with your ideas for creating a healing-centered classroom or with your thoughts on the information presented above.

References

Gatewood, H. Purple and Pink Plasma Ball. [Image]. Retrieved from
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Healing Centered Engagement. Medium. Retrieved from
https://medium.com/@ginwright/the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-trauma-informed-
care-to-healing-centered-engagement-634f557ce69c
Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain. Thousand Oaks, California:
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Han, C., Park, M., Lee, J., Jung, H. Y., Park, S. M., & Choi, J. (2018). Dysfunctional Information
Processing in Individuals with Acute Exposure to Sexual Abuse. Medicine (Baltimore).
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Joseph, S. (2012, January). What is Trauma? Psychology Today. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-doesnt-kill-us/201201/what-is-trauma
Khan Academy & Association of American Medical Colleges. (2013, October 24). Information
processing model: Sensory, working, and long term memory. [Youtube video]. Khan Academy Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMMRE4Q2FGk&t=187s
Kraybill, O. D. (2019, January). What is Trauma? Psychology Today. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/expressive-trauma-integration/201901/what-is-trauma
Noah, T. Boy sitting on curb. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.nappy.co/?s=education
Teague, C. (2009). Provisional Developmental Trauma Disorder and its Relation to and Effect on
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