Déjà vu

For other uses, see Déjà vu (disambiguation).

Déjà vu (pronounced ; French "already seen"; also called paramnesia, from Greek παρα "para," "near" + μνήμη "mnēmē," "memory") or promnesia, is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously (an individual feels as though an event has already happened or has happened in the near past), although the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book "L'Avenir des sciences psychiques" ("The Future of Psychic Sciences"), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness," "strangeness," or "weirdness." The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past.

The experience of déjà vu seems to be quite common among adults and children alike; in formal studies, 70% of people report having experienced it at least once. References to the experience of déjà vu are also found in literature of the past, indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to evoke the déjà vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies. Recently, researchers have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis.

Scientific research

Since the last years of the 20th century, déjà vu has been subject to serious psychological and neurophysiological research. Scientifically speaking, the most likely explanation of déjà vu is not that it is an act of "precognition" or "prophecy," but rather that it is an anomaly of memory giving the impression that an experience is "being recalled."

This explanation is substantiated by the fact that the sense of "recollection" at the time is strong in most cases, but that the circumstances of the "previous" experience (when, where, and how the earlier experience occurred) are quite uncertain. Likewise, as time passes, subjects can exhibit a strong recollection of having the "unsettling" experience of déjà vu itself, but little or no recollection of the specifics of the event(s) or circumstance(s) they were "remembering" when they had the déjà vu experience. In particular, this may result from an overlap between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory (events which are perceived as being in the present) and those responsible for long-term memory (events which are perceived as being in the past). The events would be stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it.

Another theory being explored is that of vision. As the theory suggests, one eye may record what is seen fractionally faster than the other, creating that "strong recollection" sensation upon the "same" scene being viewed milliseconds later by the opposite eye. However, this one fails to explain the phenomenon when other sensory inputs are involved, such as the auditive part, and especially the digital part. If one, for instance, experiences déjà vu of someone slapping the fingers on his left hand, then the déjà vu feeling is certainly not due to his right hand experiencing the same sensation later than his left hand considering that his right hand would never receive the same sensory input. Also, persons with only one eye still report experiencing déjà vu or déjà vécu. The global phenomenon must therefore be narrowed down to the brain itself (say, one hemisphere would be late compared to the other one).

Links with disorders

Early researchers tried to establish a link between déjà vu and serious psychopathology such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and dissociative identity disorder, with hopes of finding the experience of some diagnostic value. However, there does not seem to be any special association between déjà vu and schizophrenia or other psychiatric conditions. The strongest pathological association of déjà vu is with temporal lobe epilepsy. This correlation has led some researchers to speculate that the experience of déjà vu is possibly a neurological anomaly related to improper electrical discharge in the brain. As most people suffer a mild (i.e. non-pathological) epileptic episode regularly (e.g. the sudden "jolt," a hypnagogic jerk, that frequently occurs just prior to falling asleep), it is conjectured that a similar (mild) neurological aberration occurs in the experience of déjà vu, resulting in an erroneous sensation of memory. It could be also mismatching in the brain that causes the brain to mistake the present for the past.

Pharmacology

It has been reported that certain drugs increase the chances of déjà vu occurring in the user. Some pharmaceutical drugs, when taken together, have also been implicated in the cause of déjà vu. Taiminen and Jääskeläinen (2001) reported the case of an otherwise healthy male who started experiencing intense and recurrent sensations of déjà vu on taking the drugs amantadine and phenylpropanolamine together to relieve flu symptoms. He found the experience so interesting that he completed the full course of his treatment and reported it to the psychologists to write-up as a case study. Due to the dopaminergic action of the drugs and previous findings from electrode stimulation of the brain (e.g. Bancaud, Brunet-Bourgin, Chauvel, & Halgren, 1994), Taiminen and Jääskeläinen speculate that déjà vu occurs as a result of hyperdopaminergic action in the mesial temporal areas of the brain. Many scientists are still working towards the actual link of deja vu with hynangogic epilepsy.

Memory-based explanations

The similarity between a déjà-vu-eliciting stimulus and an existing, but different, memory trace may lead to the sensation (Brown, 2004; Cleary, 2008). Thus, encountering something which evokes the implicit associations of an experience or sensation that cannot be remembered may lead to déjà vu. In an effort to experimentally reproduce the sensation, Banister and Zangwill (1941) used hypnosis to give participants posthypnotic amnesia for material they had already seen. When this was later re-encountered, the restricted activation caused thereafter by the posthypnotic amnesia resulted in three of the 10 participants reporting what the authors termed paramnesias. Memory-based explanations may lead to the development of a number of non-invasive experimental methods by which a long sought-after analogue of déjà vu can be reliably produced that would allow it to be tested under well-controlled experimental conditions. Cleary (2008) suggests that déjà vu may be a form of familiarity-based recognition (recognition that is based on a feeling of familiarity with a situation) and that laboratory methods of probing familiarity-based recognition hold promise for probing déjà vu in laboratory settings. Another possible explanation for the phenomenon of déjà vu is the occurrence of "cryptamnesia," which is where information learned is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain, and occurrence of similar invokes the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content, known as "déjà vu." Another theory of déjà vu is based on the fact that our minds are so complex, and are always thinking and being used, that the familiar sensation experienced (deja vu) is actually a memory of a scenario that your mind has already thought of. When we drive, eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, ride a bike, ect, your mind is constantly thinking. It is said that when you dream, your mind is at its most efficient state. This could very well be where most random memories or "scenarios" are made.

Parapsychology

Deja Vu is a good example of Pseudo-Psi, which refers to 'what's not psychic but looks like it', that is, phenomena and experiences that individuals attribute to paranormal processes, but which actually have normal explanations. Whilst precognition and extra-sensory perception are 'Psi' they are often now misappropriated and used by new agers/mystics/psychics, as shown by the mystic explanation below. The phrases were initially coined in order to distance the phenomena from such beliefs and their association has been detrimental, with parapsychology as a science now almost non-existent.

Alternative explanations

Mystic explanation

Déjà vu is associated with precognition, clairvoyance or extra-sensory perceptions, and it is frequently cited as evidence for "psychic" abilities in the general population. Non-scientific explanations attribute the experience to prophecy, visions (such as received in dreams), or past-life memories.

Dreams

Some believe déjà vu is the memory of dreams. Though the majority of dreams are never remembered, a dreaming person can display activity in the areas of the brain that process long-term memory. It has been speculated that dreams read directly into long-term memory, bypassing short-term memory entirely. In this case, déjà vu might be a memory of a forgotten dream with elements in common with the current waking experience. This may be similar to another phenomenon known as déjà rêvé, or "already dreamed." However, later studies on mice indicate that long-term memories must be first established as short-term memories.

Kevin Heady suggested that a feeling of remembering occurs in a sense that he might realize that what he had dreamed is now a relevant present action that is taking place right here right now.

"I was once sitting down in the kitchen noticing that my plate seemed well too familiar, it seemed as if my head motions were foreseen, and that every move would trigger a continuation to happen or so, I had many déjà vus as a child but this was extraordinary, I knew from the bottom of my heart that I had dreamed this situation years ago, as a little boy, that amazingly an entire piece of memory was regained and I finally understood when and where I was dreaming and how long this dream was, and most importantly how many years ago did I dream.-John Lennon"

Reincarnation

Those believing in reincarnation theorize that déjà vu is caused by fragments of past-life memories being jarred to the surface of the mind by familiar surroundings or people. Others theorize that the phenomenon is caused by astral projection, or out-of-body experiences (OBEs), where it is possible that individuals have visited places while in their astral bodies during sleep. The sensation may also be interpreted as connected to the fulfillment of a condition as seen or felt in a premonition. For further cases of remembering information from past lives, see Ian Stevenson.

Related phenomena

Jamais vu

Main article: Jamais vu

Jamais vu is a term in psychology (from French, meaning "never seen") which is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer.

Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before.

Jamais vu is more commonly explained as when a person momentarily does not recognize a word, person, or place that they already know.

Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of amnesia and epilepsy.

Theoretically, as seen below, a jamais vu feeling in a sufferer of a delirious disorder or intoxication could result in a delirious explanation of it, such as in the Capgras delusion, in which the patient takes a person known by him/her for a false double or impostor. If the impostor is himself, the clinical setting would be the same as the one described as depersonalisation, hence jamais vus of oneself or of the very "reality of reality," are termed depersonalisation (or irreality) feelings.

Times Online reports:

Chris Moulin, of the University of Leeds, asked 92 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. At the International Conference on Memory in Sydney last week he reported that 68 per cent of the volunteers showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word. Dr. Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies a phenomenon observed in some schizophrenia patients: that a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor. Dr. Moulin suggests they could be suffering from chronic jamais vu.

Tip of Tongue (Presque vu)

Main article: tip of the tongue

Déjà vu is similar to, but distinct from, the phenomenon called tip of the tongue which is when one cannot recall a familiar word or name or situation, but with effort one eventually recalls the elusive memory. In contrast, déjà vu is a feeling that the present situation has occurred before, but the details are elusive because the situation never happened before. Presque vu (from French, meaning "almost seen") is the sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany. Often very disorienting and distracting, presque vu rarely leads to an actual breakthrough. Frequently, one experiencing presque vu will say that they have something "on the tip of their tongue."

Presque vu is often cited by people who suffer from epilepsy or other seizure-related brain conditions, such as temporal lobe lability.

L'esprit de l'escalier

Main article: L'esprit de l'escalier

L'esprit de l'escalier (from French, "staircase wit") is remembering something when it is too late (for example, a clever comeback to a remark, thought of after the conversation has ended).

An example of L'esprit de l'escalier in popular culture can be seen in The Comeback, the 147th episode of the TV sitcom "Seinfeld".

See also

• Anamnesis
• Intuition (knowledge)
• Jamais vu
• Phenomenon
• Precognition
• Psychology

References

• "Neppe Déjà Vu Research and Theory". Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute. Retrieved November 29 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
• Brown, Alan S. (2004). The Déjà Vu Experience. Psychology Press. ISBN 1841690759.
• Draaisma, Douwe (2004). Why life speeds up as you get older. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521691990.
• J. H. Jackson (1888). "A particular variety of epilepsy "intellectual aura", one case with symptoms of organic brain disease". Brain. 11: 179–207. doi:10.1093/brain/11.2.179',. {{cite journal}}: Check |doi= value (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

• Cleary, Anne M. (2008). "Recognition memory, familiarity and deja vu experiences". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 17: 353–357. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00605.x.

External links

• Chronic déjà vu - quirks and quarks episode (mp3)
• "When déjà vu is more than just an odd feeling" The Ottawa Citizen, February 20 2006
• "The Tease of Memory" The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 23 2004
• "Déjà Vu: If It All Seems Familiar, There May Be a Reason" New York Times, September 14, 2004
• "Déjà Vu, Again and Again" New York Times, July 2, 2006
• "UGH! I Just Got the Creepiest Feeling That I Have Been Here Before: Déjà vu and the Brain, Consciousness and Self", Neurobiology and Behavior, 1998
• A new theory that links déjà vu to Near-Death Experience. Anthony Peake 2006
• The Skeptic's Dictionary
• How Déjà Vu Works a Howstuffworks article
• Dentate Gyrus NMDA Receptors Mediate Rapid Pattern Separation in the Hippocampal Network
• And I feel like I've been here before
• Science Daily Article, November 19, 2008
• A website dedicated to providing déjà experience information and research