Déjà vu

Research and compilation by Ms. Victoria Ayre, DA

Déjà vu or “Already seen”

Aka paramnesia, from the Greeks

An individual feels as though an event has already happened or has

happened in the recent past.

The feeling of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense

of familiarity and a sense of eeriness

The “previous” experience is frequently characterized to real

life.

Émile Boirac (1851-1917)

French psychic researcher

Déjà vu coined after an essay in his book, "L'Avenir des sciences psychiques“("The Future of Psychic Sciences“)

Literature in past references déjà vu, indicating it is not a new phenomenon

Scientific Research

70% of people report having experienced déjà vu at least once

Experiencing déjà vu is quite common among adults and children alike

Difficult to evoke déjà vu experience in laboratory settings

Researchers are using hypnosis to recreate the sensation of déjà vu

Subject to psychological and neuropsychological research

Déjà vu is an anomaly of memory

Sense of recollection at the time is strong and circumstances of previous experience are uncertain

F i r s t T h e F i r s t T h e o r y…o r y…

S e c o n d T h e S e c o n d T h e o r y…o r y… Vision is being explored

One eye may record what is seen faster than the other

Creates that "strong recollection" sensation upon the "same" scene being viewed milliseconds later by the opposite eye

Déjà vu Linked With Disorders Pharmacology

Reports say that certain drugs increase the chances of déjà vu occurring in the user. Hyperdopaminergic action in the mesial temporal areas of the brain

Memory-based explanationsMemory trace may lead to the sensation. Cryptamnesia: information learned is forgotten yet stored in the brain, and occurrence of similarities invokes the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content

Neural theoriesCould be caused by the mis-timing of neuronal firing. Split second re-start to the neural system

Alternative Explanations For Déjà vu

Parapsychology—cited for evidence of psychic abilities

Dreams—déjà vu may be the memory of dreams

Reincarnation—déjà vu may be caused by fragments of past life memories being jarred to the surface of the mind by familiar surroundings or people

Déjà vu and its Relatives

• Jamais vu, “never seen” in French

Used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer

Described as opposite of déjà vu

• Presque vu, “almost seen” in French

When one cannot recall a familiar word or name or situation, but with effort one eventually recalls the elusive memory

Also called “tip of the tongue”

Sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany

• L'esprit de l'escalier, “staircase wit” in French

Remembering something when it is too late

Déjà vu feeling is common among psychiatric patients

Déjà vu feeling also frequently precedes temporal lobe epilepsy attacks

Famous Experiment in 1955

Electrically stimulated the temporal lobes and found that about 8% of his patients experienced “memories”

With this, he assumed he elicited actual memories

However, these good have been the first signs of artificially stimulated déjà vu

The Déjà Vu “Feeling”

Three Types of Déjà vu

• Deja vecu (already experienced or lived through)– Otherwise known as déjà vu, experiences occur more frequently between the

ages of 15 and 25– The events are so striking that they are often remembered for years to come

• Deja senti (‘already felt’) – Appears in temporal lobe epilepsy attacks– It is primarily or even exclusively a mental happening– There are no precognitive aspects in which the person feels he or she knows in

advance what will be said or done– It seldom or never remains in the afflicted person's memory afterwards

• Deja visite (‘already visited’)– Seems to occur more rarely and is an experience in which a person visits a new

locality and nevertheless feels it to be familiar– Deja visite has to do with geography, with the three spatial dimensions of

height, width and depth, while deja vecu has to do more with temporal occurrences and processes

– C.G. Jung published an account on Deja visite in his account on synchronicity

How does it work?• There are portions of the brain that are

specialized for the past, the present and the future. The temporal lobes are concerned with the past, the frontal lobes are concerned with the future, and the underlying, intermediate portions (the limbic system) are concerned with the present.

• The structure that overwhelms our consciousness when we are 'in the present’ is the amygdala. It assigns an emotional 'tone' to our perceptions.

• The amygdala also recognizes expressions on people's faces.

• Each instance of the self is able to manifest a new emotional response, but only if circumstances have changed. Every 25 milliseconds. The duration of the 'present' in neurological terms is so brief that we don't experience it so much as remember it.

Interesting Facts• The youngest age of déjà vu reported is age 5. This has major

theoretical implications for cognitive development. There is a complex interchange with age and incidence based on quality of remembering.

• There is no single theoretical cause of déjà vu that can explain its wide variety of clinical manifestations. Most instances of associative déjà vu are associated with a predisposing milieu of anxiety and are triggered by restricted paramnesia and reintegration.

• There are 21 kinds of déjà vu, including 10 new terms introduced by the author. There is also a metaphorical journalistic use of the term. There are 7 major phenomenological classifications of the déjà vu experience: a disorder of memory, a disorder of ego state, an ego defense, a temporal perceptual disturbance, a recognition disorder, a manifestation of epileptic firing, or a subjective paranormal experience.

• The common occurrence of déjà is the general population stresses the need for the development of specific qualitative features for valuable diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy.

“Right now, I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time, I

think I’ve forgotten this before,” –Steve Wright

SourcesSources• http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/5305 • http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mdlee/dejavu.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j

%C3%A0_vu • http://www.pni.org/books/deja_vu_info.html • http://www.shaktitechnology.com/dejavu.htm • http://skepdic.com/dejavu.html