In many cases, people who experience déjà vu can’t pinpoint why it’s happening. This second glance triggers a feeling of familiarity, because, in this case, we really have seen something before. By the time we look to our left again, our brains may have forgotten the first glance. As we begin to cross a street, we instinctively look to the left, but if something catches our attention on our right, we turn in that direction. Yet another possible explanation for déjà vu, says Cleary, dates back to 1928, when psychology Edward Titchener described the sensation using the example of crossing a street. “People do have an increased sense of déjà vu when the scene has a similar layout, but they’re failing to recall the source of that familiarity,” Cleary says.
When participants explored the second room, they reported experiencing a feeling of déjà vu, but they couldn’t connect that to their time spent navigating the first room. The second was a museum setting that swapped the tree for a large statue, the floor plants with rugs and the hanging baskets with sconces. The first was a courtyard setting featuring a potted tree in the center, encircled by various plants, and hanging plant baskets on the walls. Using the life simulation game The Sims, Cleary and her team built two scenes, different in their features but identical in their layout. To test this hypothesis, she set out to induce déjà vu in a laboratory setting (PDF). “You’re left only with this feeling of familiarity with the current situation.”Ĭleary suspected that this sense of familiarity results from our ability to remember the spatial configuration of surroundings. “In the absence of recalling that specific experience,” Cleary says. Your gaze lands on the giant glass pyramid jutting out of the museum’s main courtyard, and you get that strange feeling.Īt that moment, your brain is failing to retrieve a memory that could explain it away: A few months ago, you watched The Da Vinci Code, a film that provides an up-close look at the Louvre Pyramid. Cleary offers this scenario to help explain: Imagine you’re visiting Paris for the first time, and you have arrived at the Louvre. Something about a new situation or setting activates a memory of a similar past experience, but our brains fail to recall it. Some scientists posit that similar neural misfiring-a glitch in the system-also causes healthy, seizure-free brains to experience a sense of familiarity when there’s no reason to.Ī second hypothesis involves another brain error this time, the problem is with our memory, says Anne Cleary, a cognitive psychology professor at Colorado State University.
When some patients undergo brain surgery to stop the seizures, they wake up to a world free of the phenomenon.
For these patients, déjà vu is a result of getting their wires crossed. Research on such patients showed that their feelings of déjà vu were likely linked to seizure activity in the medial temporal lobe, the part of the brain associated with sensory perception, speech production and memory association.ĭuring a seizure, neurons misfire, sending mixed-up messages to different parts of the body. The observation was no coincidence-those with some types of epilepsy seem to feel déjà vu more often than those without the neurological disorder. However, scientists have pondered the question for quite some time: A description of a déjà vu experience in patients with epilepsy appears as early as 1888. The phenomenon is difficult to study-most people, when they experience déjà vu, aren’t hooked up to a bunch of electrodes, with clipboard-toting researchers at the ready.
The origin of déjà vu (French for “already seen”), a sense of familiarity with something entirely new, remains hidden somewhere deep in our brains. As you walk through a new city for the first time, something familiar clicks in your mind, giving you pause. Perhaps a case of déjà vu? Photo by leandroagguireĭéjà vu is a rare occurrence, but you know it when you feel it. Symptoms: crunched-up brows, a narrowing of the eyes and a slight tilt of the head.