Déjà vu

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For other uses, see Déjà vu (disambiguation).

Déjà vu, from French, literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced had been experienced in the past.

Contents  [hide]  1 Scientific research 1.1 Links with disorders 1.2 Pharmacology 1.3 Memory-based explanations 1.4 Parapsychology 2 Related phenomena 2.1 Jamais vu 2.2 Presque vu 2.3 Déjà entendu 3 In popular culture 3.1 Film 3.2 Television 3.3 Radio 3.4 Theatre 3.5 Music 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Scientific research

The psychologist Edward B. Titchener in his book 1928 A Textbook of Psychology, explained déjà vu as caused by a person having a brief glimpse of an object or situation, before the brain has completed "constructing" a full conscious perception of the experience. Such a "partial perception" then results in a false sense of familiarity.^[1] The explanation that has mostly been accepted 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 false impression that an experience is "being recalled".^[2][3] This explanation is supported 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 uncertain or believed to be impossible.
As well, as time passes, subjects may 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) which were the subject of the déjà vu experience itself (the events that were being "remembered"). This may result from an "overlap" between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory, resulting in (memories of) recent events erroneously being perceived as being in the more distant past. One theory is the events are stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it.^[4] However, this explanation has been criticized that the brain would not be able to store information without a sensory input first. Another theory suggests the brain may process sensory input (perhaps all sensory input) as a "memory-in-progress", and that therefore during the event itself one believes it to be a past memory. In a survey, Brown had concluded that approximately two-thirds of the population have had déjà vu experiences.^[5]

[edit] Links with disorders

Early researchers tried to establish a link between déjà vu and serious psychopathology such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and dissociative identity disorder, but failed to find the experience of some diagnostic value. There does not seem to be a special association between déjà vu and schizophrenia or other psychiatric conditions.^[6] The strongest pathological association of déjà vu is with temporal lobe epilepsy.^[7][8] 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. a hypnagogic jerk, the sudden "jolt" that frequently, but not always, 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. Scientists have even looked into genetics when considering déjà vu. Although there is not currently a gene associated with déjà vu, the LGII gene on chromosome 10 is being studied for a possible link. Certain forms of the gene are associated with a mild form of epilepsy and, though by no means a certainty, déjà vu occurs often enough during seizures that researchers have reason to suspect a link.^[9]

[edit] Pharmacology

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)^[10] reported the case of an otherwise healthy male who started experiencing intense and recurrent sensations of déjà vu upon 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),^[11] Taiminen and Jääskeläinen speculate that déjà vu occurs as a result of hyperdopaminergic action in the mesial temporal areas of the brain.

[edit] Memory-based explanations

The similarity between a déjà-vu-eliciting stimulus and an existing, but different, memory trace may lead to the sensation.^[6][12] 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)^[13][14] 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^[12] 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. A recent study that used virtual reality technology to study reported déjà vu experiences supported this idea. This virtual reality investigation suggested that similarity between a new scene's spatial layout and the layout of a previously experienced scene in memory (but which fails to be recalled) may contribute to the déjà vu experience.^[15][15] When the previously experienced scene fails to come to mind in response to viewing the new scene, that previously experienced scene in memory can still exert an effect—that effect may be a feeling of familiarity with the new scene that is subjectively experienced as a feeling of déjà vu, or of having been there before despite knowing otherwise. Another possible explanation for the phenomenon of déjà vu is the occurrence of "cryptomnesia", which is where information learned is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain, and similar occurrences invoke the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content, known as "déjà vu". Some experts suggest that memory is a process of reconstruction, rather than a recall of fixed, established events. This reconstruction comes from stored components, involving elaborations, distortions and omissions. Each successive recall of an event is merely a recall of the last reconstruction. The proposed sense of recognition (déjà vu) involves achieving a good ‘match’ between the present experience and our stored data. This reconstruction however, may now differ so much from the original event that we ‘know’ we have never experienced it before, even though it seems similar.^[16]

[edit] Parapsychology

Some parapsychologists have advocated other interpretations of déjà vu. Ian Stevenson and other researchers have written that some cases of déjá vu might be explained on the basis of reincarnation.^[17][18] Anthony Peake has written that déjà vu experiences occur as people are living their lives not for the first time but at least the second.^[19]

[edit] Related phenomena

[edit] Jamais vu

Main article: Jamais vu

Jamais vu (from French, meaning "never seen") is a term in psychology 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 aphasia, 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 or 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 surreality) feelings.
Times Online reports (see semantic satiation):

Chris Moulin, of the University of Leeds, asked 95 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. At the International Conference on Memory in Sydney last week he reported that 68 percent 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.^[20]

[edit] Presque vu

Presque vu is similar to, but distinct from, the phenomenon called tip of the tongue, a situation where someone cannot recall a familiar word or name, but with effort 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 my tongue".

[edit] Déjà entendu

Déjà entendu, (literally "already heard") is the experience of feeling sure that one has already heard something, even though the exact details are uncertain and/or were perhaps imagined.^[21][22]

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] Film

Déjà vu provides a plot point in The Matrix, a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. The protagonist, Neo, glances at a black cat and comments that he has just experienced déjà vu. Those with a knowledge of 'The Matrix' and its internal workings state that déjà vu means something within the Matrix was altered from its prior state and is referred to as a "glitch".
The 2006 science fiction film Déjà Vu revolves around a US federal law enforcement officer using an instrument called Snowhite to view the past four and a half days of anywhere in the world (limited radius as permissible by the program) in order to solve a murder and a terrorist bomb attack on a ferry that was being boarded by about 500 citizens and military members.

[edit] Television

Déjà Vu was the third episode of the second season of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British comedy program. Michael Palin plays a television host with the problem.^[23]
The concept is explored in the episode 119 of Garfield and Friends in the Orson's Farm segment.
The X-Files episode "Monday" (Season 6, Episode 14) in which Mulder and Scully repeat the same day again and again explores the complexities of deja vu. In the episode Mulder uses his experience of deja vu to influence events.
The final episode of season 1 of Charmed, called "Déjà Vu All Over Again" sees Phoebe Halliwell reliving the same day over and over again at the hands of a demon named Tempus.^[24]
Déjà Vu is also a recurring plot element on Fringe. In the Season One episode, "The Road Not Taken", Olivia described the experience of déjà vu to Walter after she briefly experienced an alternate reality as the result of being a Cortexiphan subject. In the Season Two episode "White Tulip", Olivia experiences déjà vu while investigating the apartment of a time traveler who reset the timeline.
Déjà Vu is also a plot element in the episode "Mystery Spot" of the television series Supernatural where Sam Winchester wakes up in the same day as a result of being trapped in a time loop.
In the Star Trek, The Next Generation episode, ‘Cause and Effect’, The U.S.S Enterprise is destroyed in a collision with another ship close to a temporal anomaly. This causes the event to repeat over and over which in turn causes several crew members to have feelings of Déjà Vu.
In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity (Stargate SG-1)" Teal'c and O'Neil experience the same day over and over again due to a device on an alien planet.

[edit] Radio

Déja Vue at the festival Le Mois Molière (fr) in June 2006

Déjà Vu is a 2009 radio play by Alexis Zegerman in French and English co-produced by BBC Radio 4 and ARTE Radio.

[edit] Theatre

Déjà Vu is a 1991 stage play by John Osborne.

[edit] Music

Main article: Déjà vu (disambiguation)- Music

[edit] See also

• Capgras delusion
• Intuition (knowledge)
• Jamais vu
• Phenomenon
• Precognition
• Presque vu
• Psychological repression
• Psychology
• Rapport congruency

[edit] References

1. ^ Titchener, E. B. (1928). A textbook of psychology. New York: Macmillan
2. ^ "The Meaning of Déjà Vu", Eli Marcovitz, M.D. (1952). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, vol. 21, pages: 481-489
3. ^ The déjà vu experience, Alan S. Brown, Psychology Press, (2004), ISBN 0-203-48544-0, Introduction, page 1
4. ^ Pierre Janet (1942). Les Dissolutions de la Mémoire. Quoted in Tolland. Disorders of Memory, 1969, p.152
5. ^ Brown, A. S. (2004). The déjà vu illusion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 256-259.
6. ^ ^{a b} Brown, Alan S. (2004). The Déjà Vu Experience. Psychology Press. ISBN 1-84169-075-9. http://books.google.com/?id=5flMtjmezeYC&vq=the+deja+vu+experience+alan+brown.
7. ^ Neurology Channel
8. ^ Howstuffworks "What is déjà vu?"
9. ^ Brynie, Faith (2009). Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us. Amacom. pp. 195.
10. ^ Taiminen, T.; Jääskeläinen, S. (2001). "Intense and recurrent déjà vu experiences related to amantadine and phenylpropanolamine in a healthy male". Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 8 (5): 460–462. doi:10.1054/jocn.2000.0810. PMID 11535020.  edit
11. ^ Bancaud, J.; Brunet-Bourgin; Chauvel; Halgren (1994). "Anatomical origin of déjà vu and vivid 'memories' in human temporal lobe epilepsy". Brain : a journal of neurology 117 (1): 71–90. PMID 8149215.  edit
12. ^ ^{a b} Cleary, Anne M. (2008). "Recognition memory, familiarity and déjà vu experiences". Current Directions in Psychological Science 17 (5): 353–357. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00605.x. 
13. ^ Banister H, Zangwill OL (1941). "Experimentally induced olfactory paramnesia". British Journal of Psychology 32: 155–175. 
14. ^ Banister H, Zangwill OL (1941). "Experimentally induced visual paramnesias". British Journal of Psychology 32: 30–51. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Cleary et al. (2012). "Familiarity from the configuration of objects in 3-dimensional space and its relation to déjà vu: A virtual reality investigation". Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2): 969–975. 
16. ^ Youngson, R.. "Deja Vu". The Royal Society of Medicine Health Encyclopedia. Dr R.M. Youngson. http://www.credoreference.com/entry/rsmhealth/deja_vu. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
17. ^ Fisher, J. (1984). The case for reincarnation. New York: Bantam Books.
18. ^ Stevenson, I. (1987). Children who remember past lives. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.
19. ^ Anthony Peake Is There Life After Death? The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2012 ISBN 1-84837-299-X
20. ^ Ahuja, Anjana (2006-07-24). "Doctor, I've got this little lump on my arm . . . Relax, that tells me everything". London: Times Online. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
21. ^ Grinnel, Renée (2008), Déjà Entendu, PsychCentral, http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2008/deja-entendu/, retrieved 04-10-2011
22. ^ Mental Status Examination Rapid Record Form
23. ^ "Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just the Words - Episode 16". Ibras.dk. http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode16.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
24. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0539356/

[edit] Further reading

• "What is déjà vu?". Psychology Today. 2010-01-05. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201001/what-is-d-j-vu.
• Draaisma, Douwe (2004). Why life speeds up as you get older. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-69199-0.
• Hughlinks-Jackson, J. (1888). "A particular variety of epilepsy "intellectual aura", one case with symptoms of organic brain disease". Brain 11 (2): 179–207. doi:10.1093/brain/11.2.179. 
• Carey, Benedict (2004-09-14). "Déjà Vu: If It All Seems Familiar, There May Be a Reason". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
• Ratliff, Evan (2006-07-02). "Déjà Vu, Again and Again". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
• "When déjà vu is more than just an odd feeling". The Ottawa Citizen. 2006-02-20. 
• "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. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper2/Johnson2.html.
• "The Tease of Memory". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2004-07-23. http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i46/46a01201.htm.
• "The Psychology Of Deja Vu". Science Daily. 2008-11-19. http://www.rebornspirit.com.
• Herbert, Wray (2008-10-23). "And I feel like I've been here before". Psychological Science. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman/2008/10/and-i-feel-like-ive-been-here-before.cfm.
• McHugh TJ, Jones MW, Quinn JJ et al. (July 2007). "Dentate gyrus NMDA receptors mediate rapid pattern separation in the hippocampal network". Science 317 (5834): 94–9. doi:10.1126/science.1140263. PMID 17556551. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Déjà vu

• Anne Cleary discussing a virtual reality investigation of déjà vu
• Familiarity from the Configuration of Objects in 3-dimensional Space and Its Relation to Deja vu: A Virtual Reality Investigation
• Deja Vu: Scientifically Explained | Medchrome
• Chronic déjà vu - quirks and quarks episode (mp3)
• A new theory that links déjà vu to Near-Death Experience — by Anthony Peake, 2006.
• The Skeptic's Dictionary
• How Déjà Vu Works — a Howstuffworks article
• Déjà Experience Research — a website dedicated to providing déjà experience information and research
• Nikhil Swaminathan, Think You've Previously Read About This? Scientific American June 8, 2007
• Deberoh Halber, Research Deciphers Deju-Vu Brain Mechanics MIT Report June 7, 2007
• documentary about DEJA VU: TEMPORAO

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