Have you ever wondered why memories of traumatic experiences seem to be so vivid, immersive, and body-based – so different from everyday memories? This paper that we wrote, published in Nature Mental Health, examines how traumatic memories differ from ordinary autobiographical memories in terms of how they’re recalled, the emotional impact, and how the memories are stored in the brain. These findings highlight why sensory-based, somatic approaches to trauma treatment could help process trauma on a deeper level, and underscore the urgency of addressing trauma in new ways in both the legal system and therapy.

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What Makes Traumatic Memory Different?​

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We make an important distinction between autobiographical memories and traumatic memories.

Autobiographical memories are recalled voluntarily and allow you to feel like you’re still in the present moment with a flexible recollection of past events, like you’re telling a story of what happened.

 

In comparison, traumatic memories often emerge involuntarily, driven by low-level sensory input, and are experienced as intense sensory fragments – sounds, smells, movements, images or sensations. Unlike ordinary memories, they are past-centered and tend to be rigid, without a story-like structure or a clear sense of time. Traumatic memories are not simply recollections of past events. Rather, these fragmented re-experiences are accompanied by visceral sensations, and can manifest as flashbacks or dissociative episodes, overwhelming the individual as if the trauma is happening in the present.

 

This leads to our key hypothesis: that traumatic memories activate different neurobiological pathways, particularly involving the sensorimotor system and lower-level brain areas. Since traumatic memories engage the brain’s sensorimotor system, this causes the person to relive the event with sensory detail rather than as a cognitive, verbalized recollection.

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What Key Brain Networks are Involved in Traumatic Memory?​

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1. Sensorimotor Network (SMN): “Here and Now” Body Memory

• The SMN processes real-time sensory and motor experiences – like touch, movement, and posture.

• In traumatic memory, these circuits become disrupted, locking the brain and body into a defensive state.

• When trauma is not fully processed, incoming sensory cues (like a sound or facial expression) can re-trigger this network, replaying the body’s original reactions as if the threat is happening again.

• Without proper feedback from the environment (like safe present-day cues), these memories don’t get updated, remaining frozen in time.

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2. Posterior Default Mode Network (DMN): “Emotional Time Travel”

• The posterior DMN helps us reflect on the past and integrate it into our sense of self.

• In PTSD, this network becomes hyperconnected to sensorimotor and alarm systems (like the amygdala, insula, and brainstem).

• Instead of supporting safe self-reflection, it fuels vivid emotional reliving - with the past overtaking the present.

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The Model That We Propose

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We provide a model that demonstrates how traumatic memories are stored differently in the brains of people with PTSD. Combining multiple findings from our previous research, discussed in other summaries on this website, we explain how traumatic memories are processed and stored differently after trauma due to changes in function or connectivity in various areas of the brain. This includes the lower parts of the brain such as the superior colliculi (responsible for eye movements), peri-aqueductal gray (PAG) (which is involved in encoding fear-based memories and responding to threats), and increased connectivity between the PAG and default mode network (DMN), and also includes changes in connections involving the sensorimotor network, visual cortex, and insula. We suggest that these parts of the brain interact and thereby alter the integration of sensorimotor information and contribute to the re-experiencing of traumatic memories in PTSD.

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Implications for Legal Systems

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We highlight the need for legal systems to recognize the distinct nature of traumatic memory. Current practices in legal interrogation often rely on detailed verbal accounts of past events, which may not be suitable for individuals with trauma. Since traumatic memories are often fragmented and sensory-based, rather than cohesive narratives that someone could verbalize, asking trauma survivors to recall precise details of an event can be inappropriate, ineffective to recall or express a memory, and even re-traumatizing.

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Implications for Therapy & Treatment

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Understanding how the brain stores traumatic memories may explain why certain first-line PTSD treatments, like talk therapy, can be ineffective for up to 50% of individuals. These common therapies often rely on verbal processing of memories. However, these therapies often don’t target the sensorimotor system - yet this is where many trauma memories are stored. With this knowledge, we need treatments that address the neurobiology of trauma, targeting the fragmented and sensory nature of traumatic memory.

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The findings have major implications for how clinicians approach trauma therapy. Because traumatic memories are deeply rooted in sensory and motor experiences, it is important to complement verbal therapies by incorporating therapies that focus on integrating sensory and motor processes.

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Interventions may be more effective when they incorporate the sensorimotor system using:​

• Safe physical movements and sensory experiences that contradict traumatic cues

• Real-time feedback from the body’s environment to “update” the memory

• Sensorimotor-based therapies – such as:​

 

1. Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)™

• Targets brainstem-based orienting responses involved in the initial impact of trauma, including shock

• You can read more about DBR, including the first-ever randomized controlled trial that we conducted on DBR, on our website here.

 

​2. Sensorimotor arousal regulation treatment (SMART)

• SMART is an embodied treatment approach that promotes the connection between mind, brain, and body via the person’s sensory-motor engagement of the body

• SMART aims to intervene at the level of intrinsic brain networks that are impacted by trauma, and addresses the three levels of sensory systems that we refer to as "inputs": tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular

• You can read more about SMART on our Current Research Studies in Progress page

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3. Somatic Experiencing®

• Based on tracking bodily sensations to complete survival responses.

• Helps resolve stuck defensive responses and reconnect to present-moment safety.

 

4. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• A body-oriented (somatic) therapy that blends cognitive and emotional approaches with physical interventions and movements to directly address the implicit memories and neurobiological effects of trauma.

• It uses bodily experience as the primary entry point, rather than the cognitive “story”.

• Focuses on how the body is processing information – and how this affects emotions and the meaning that we make of the traumatic experience

• It helps people complete survival responses that could not occur at the time of trauma

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5. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

• Recognized as a modality that can incorporate sensory processing and support trauma resolution.

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6. Multimodal Motion-Assisted Memory Desensitization and Reprocessing

• A newer integrative approach involving movement-based memory processing.

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7. Sensory-Based Expressive Arts Therapy

• Engages creative, body-informed modalities for processing trauma nonverbally.

 

8. Neurofeedback

• Especially alpha rhythm EEG neurofeedback, which is a promising approach to restore DMN connectivity and improve PTSD symptoms.

 

9. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

• Specifically targeting sensorimotor and DMN circuits to support memory updating and regulation.

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Re-contextualizing traumatic memory through these body-based awareness approaches can help rewire the brain and allow the past to become past.

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Ultimately, these findings can help guide neuroscientifically informed trauma treatments. We can combine therapy with neuroscience. Integrating talk therapies with somatic, body-based therapies has the power to deepen trauma healing. This understanding can help inform new therapeutic approaches and support further development of trauma-informed care. By engaging these sensorimotor areas of the brain in therapy, we can help transform fragmented, relived experiences into integrated memories to improve recovery after trauma.​​