At some point in your life, you probably experienced a weird sensation where you felt like you have been in the same situation before, although that may not necessarily be the case. This phenomenon that causes us to believe we are psychic is called déjà vu, a term that is familiar to many of us. But do any of us actually know how it occurs? We are accustomed to using this term in our everyday lives that we seem to forget its relevance to the scientific world.
Déjà vu. Author: Chief-Slaya via DeviantART.
Déjà vu is a French term that translates to “already seen”. Some people have gone to the extreme with this definition by suggesting that the sensation arises from memories of your past life. Clearly, this is not very realistic since we cannot prove if we existed for more than one generation. Therefore, more scientific explanations have been suggested to discover the truth behind déjà vu.
Our brains are tremendously efficient in what they do. For example, only bits and pieces of a memory like smell or sound is enough to trigger the brain to replay that moment in your head. A study has shown that if you experience something that closely resembles the sensations you felt in the past, your brain will retrieve that memory and leave you with a sense of familiarity. Of course, this still doesn’t explain why we sometimes live through familiar, but novel experiences.
Stages of memory (treat working memory as short-term memory). Author: Nheise via en.wikibooks.
Another theory suggests that déjà vu is a result of erroneous translation by the brain. New information is constantly being added and erased from our short-term memory, where deleted memories become new if experienced again. Through a mechanism that is not well known, the information is re-routed to be stored in our long-term memory. Therefore, when you experience something new, your brain misinterprets it as an event that has occurred in the past.
Here is a video that contains some additional facts about déjà vu:
Youtube user: Vsauce
Although not much is known about déjà vu yet, we can be sure to say that you are neither unusual nor a wizard. So for the time being, just try to appreciate the one bizarre thing that happens in your ordinary life.
-Daniel(Sanggi) Hong
