Testifying before Congress about her alleged assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is appearing not only as an alleged victim, but as an expert witness.

Asked the details of her allegations, the psychology professor and researcher peppered her sometimes emotional responses with clinical science: brain structure and chemistry, memory formation.

The laughter of Kavanaugh and Mark Judge, she said, was "indelible in the hippocampus." She noted that the "sequelae of sexual assault" varies from victim to victim.

What Ford called her "basic memory function" was anything but basic: She said "the level of norephinephrine and the epinephrine in the brain" encoded and locked her traumatic memories into her brain.

Ford is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University in California. She teaches research design and education clinical psychology at Palo Alto and in a consortium with Stanford University’s School of Medicine.

She earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of Southern California, and master's degrees from Stanford and Pepperdine University.

For the less science savvy, here's a look at what the terms mean, according to Merriam-Webster.

Sequela: An aftereffect of a disease, condition, or injury, or a "secondary result."

Epinephrine: A hormone secreted by part of the adrenal glands.

Norepinephrine: A substance that can be a chemical way of of transmitting neurons or a hormone.

Hippocampus: Part of the brain involved in forming, storing, and processing memory.

Neurotransmitter: A substance, such as norepinephrine, that transmits nerve impulses across the brain.

Clinical psychologist Jim Hopper, a trauma expert and Harvard teaching associate, says Ford was correct that she was describing basic memory functioning. He usually simplifies it by describing “defense circuitry” altering the “memory circuitry” without naming the chemicals involved.

"Dr. Blasey Ford is clearly an academic researcher who knows what she’s talking about," Hopper says. As for her high-level language, "It may have been her researcher’s mind that values precision."

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