You know the feeling of reliving something? Maybe you’ve read something, or saw, or smelled something that made you say, “Hey, this happened already.” That’s the feeling of Deja Vu.
Scientist have been trying to figure out Deja Vu since the 19th century. Researchers now say that Deja Vu is the result of a miscommunication in the brain that happens when go through something that has a familiar pattern. However, some theorists say that Deja Vu happens when parallel universes sync, and you’re experiencing the same thing somewhere else. I’m not sure about that, lets take a further look.
A study was done that suggests that Deja Vu is simply a memory malfunction. Researchers at Colorado State University put together a study where they gathered volunteer students to participate. In the study, they designed a town of structures. The rooms and buildings were designed to share some of the same elements such as layout, artwork, patterns, and graphics. In result, students could remember obvious similarities. However, if the room had vague similarities, it created the feeling of Deja Vu for the students. The results illustrate that there can be a sense of familiarity, but not enough for the brain to connect it to when and where.
There is another theory that Deja Vu is simply a glitch in the information process in the brain, specially information that passes though memory and perception. This theory is due to the high numbers of reported Deja Vu cases in people with epilepsy. Cases of Deja Vu begins to decrease, once Epilepsy and seizures are controlled. This suggests that the way the brain interprets images and what it thinks it remembers may have a connection.
I’m still not sure exactly what is happening when we experience Deja Vu. Essentially, I don’t think any of these studies or theories are strong enough to be valid. However, by reading these theories, I’ve personally gathered that there is some sort of glitch in the brain that triggers the memory of a past time and event.
Source:
http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/03/24/the-weird-science-and-fringe-theory-of-deja-vu/
Yeah, it was really interesting.
This was one of the most interesting articles I read on this blog so far. I never thought of Deja Vu being researched extensively enough to hypothesize that it could potentially be a malfunction in the brain. Like you stated, I agree that there isn’t enough evidence to truly support this, but it was definitely something I would want to keep up to date with to see if any further results were produced.