The Brain Is a SOCIAL Organ?
Modern neuroscience research continues to point to the brain as a highly social organ. But what does that mean? The brain needs interaction to develop, to learn how to be a brain! It learns how to modulate emotions, solve problems, and guide behavior, through experience with the environment. Now for some of you this will be obvious, but the repercussions of this when applied to witnesses testifying are not. How a witness is prepared to testify needs to take into account this fact. The truth is that most witnesses have little experience with any part of the specific legal role they are going to be asked to assume. Even more concerning is that many times the witness is being asked to relive stressful or painful events in their past. Just the anticipatory stress of this is enough to have manifestation of all types of inappropriate behavior.
The witness preparation protocol must incorporate the opportunity for interactions that will allow the witness’s brain to learn how to be an effective witness, how to handle the stress of testifying, and how to tell a story on the witness stand. Our advantage is the human brain is a remarkable organ that adapts quickly. We use that remarkable adaptation function by creating a protocol that quickly brings to bear the important interactions needed to create the best, most authentic, witness testimony possible.
