Déjà Vu

"It's like déjà vu all over again." (Yogi Berra 1961)


Introduction

I have always been accustomed to the experience of déjà vu, Sitting in English class, Driving home, scrolling through my phone, and suddenly, every sense I am experiencing is exceptionally familiar. The phenomenon has recently begun occurring more regularly, at least twice weekly. So why would someone spontaneously experience déjà vu that often, and what is déjà vu? A neurological malfunction? The paranormal? A result of increased fatigue? Or maybe a hidden memory from a past life? This project will dive into many of the limited studies or theories that the phenomenon of déjà vu has inspired, from the phenomenon acquiring its name to the studies being performed today, such as virtual reality testing.


 Image from Déjà vu: Newman, Tim. Re-experiencing the unexperienced, Medical News Today, June 14, 2017. (Accessed October 22, 2023)  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317895 . Depicted with the caption, "Many of us will have experienced déjà vu, yet none of us seem to know why." 

What is Déjà vu?

Déjà vu is a French word that means feeling like you have already experienced the present, and it is felt by most people at least once in a lifetime. "From the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, Researchers used various words or phrases to describe déjà vu," including "False Memory, Reminiscence, and Paramnesia." Still, the problem with these descriptors is that they elude to the idea that the phenomenon is a memory dysfunction. (Brown et al., 2004, P. 10) In the book The Déjà Vu Experience, The author Alan S. Brown explains that the phenomenon of Déjà Vu is not a memory dysfunction but a"double perception" or "a brief break in one's ongoing perceptual processing that gives rise to an impression of separate and duplicated experiences." (Brown et al., 2004, P. 173)

How do we Know?

Déjà Vu has been studied in many ways, The primary method being "retrospective questionnaires" (Brown et al., 2004, P. 19) or surveys that examine occurrences from the past. Two varieties of retrospective evaluations have been widely used in these studies: short surveys involving yes or no questions and longer questionnaires evaluating multiple dimensions of the déjà vu phenomenon. (Brown et al., 2004, P. 19) Brown explains that the problem with most of the evaluations completed in the past is that the information presented to subjects indicates that many researchers tend to assume the déjà vu experience falls outside the "realm of regular cognitive experience," Which Brown avoids in her studies. (Brown et al., 2004, P. 21)

Déjà Vecu

Déjà Vecu is a French word meaning “already lived” and is medically defined as “an intense, but false, feeling of having already lived through the present situation.” (Moulin, August 4, 2006) Scientists believe that it stems from a disruption in the part of the brain responsible for recollection. While experiencing the phenomenon of déjà vu once or twice or even regularly is typical, experiencing it persistently throughout most days is not.

Dr. Christopher Moulin (Neuropsychologist, University of Leeds) describes a typical scenario for a déjà vecu case in his interview with Ira Flatrow of NPR. "Something might arrive in the mail for them, a letter from an old friend or something like that, and they would believe that they had already received that letter before." This phenomenon is not classified as an illness but as a symptom, and it is infrequent, with about 100 cases worldwide at any given time. (Moulin, August 4, 2006) Ira Flatrow of NPR inquired to Dr. Moulin about whether or not déjà vu and déjà vecu could be connected to a dream state and if this could explain why déjà vu occurs. Dr. Moulin explains that the temporal lobe is very involved in vivid dreams, but there needs to be a clear case that these are connected to the phenomenon of déjà vu for this to be true. (Moulin, August 4, 2006)


Earliest Reports of Déjà Vu

Can Déjà Vu Lead to Psychic Abilities?

Inducing Déjà Vu

In 1959, a peculiar experiment was performed on a patient during brain surgery. A neurosurgeon named Wilder Penfield induced déjà vu through brain stimulation. Dr. Penfield was well known for his work in brain surgery, specifically in consciously awake patients, where he would stimulate different areas in the brain and have them report their subjective experiences. "His idea was to try to understand how brain activity relates to subjective experience." (TEDx Talks, August 23, 2023) It is no surprise that Dr. Penfield induced déjà vu in this patient, given that he stimulated a region of the brain known as the medial temporal lobe located close to the temple. We now know that this part of the brain is connected to déjà vu because patients who have seizures in this medial temporal lobe tend to have chronic déjà vu or déjà vecu as a symptom. However, What was surprising about Dr. Penfield's experiment is that he induced déjà vu and the feeling of having a premonition. This result made Scientist Anne Cleary wonder if déjà vu could lead to precognition. Cleary explains, "As a scientist, I was skeptical. But I also wondered if there might be a logical explanation here that is not rooted in the paranormal." (TEDx Talks, August 23, 2023)

The Déjà Vu Generator

To study this inquiry of Anne Cleary's, She needed a way to induce déjà vu in the lab easily. She concluded that she would need "some sort of déjà vu generator" (TEDx Talks, August 23, 2023) and that this may be an idea closer to reality than it sounds. Cleary and one of her former students attempted to use virtual reality to "create the juxtaposition between familiarity and newness characteristic of déjà vu." (TEDx Talks, August 23, 2023) The generator was based on a theory about how déjà vu works. The theory suggests that if a current experience is highly similar to a prior memory, your brain can feel familiar with the current situation. Within Cleary's déjà vu generator, she included "high similarity between otherwise distinct scenes by creating identical spatial layouts between them." (TEDx Talks, August 23, 2023)

"high similarity between otherwise distinct scenes by creating identical spatial layouts between them." (TEDx Talks, “The fascinating relationship between déjà vu and premonition | Anne Cleary | TEDxLiverpool” August 23, 2018, Ted Talk,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6qXYJkhDc&list=PPSV  (Accessed October 28, 2023) )

The study resulted in subjects experiencing the juxtaposition between familiarity and newness when shown spatially identical scenes. Cleary then took these virtual scenes from her first studies and turned them into virtual tours to see if the subjects could predict the directions the tour would take them after seeing a pattern between distinctly different scenes.

Virtual scenes from Cleary's first study converted into virtual tours. (TEDx Talks, “The fascinating relationship between déjà vu and premonition | Anne Cleary | TEDxLiverpool” August 23, 2018, Ted Talk,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6qXYJkhDc&list=PPSV  (Accessed October 28, 2023) )

This second study resulted in no predictive ability within subjects. After years of sitting on the study unsatisfied, Cleary went back and asked the subjects if they felt they could predict the directions in the virtual tours as the patient in Dr. Penfield's study experienced. When adding the question about feeling the sensation of precognition, Cleary found that 75% of subjects did experience the phenomenon, leading her to conclude that déjà vu cannot lead to accurate precognition. However, it can lead to a premonition or the feeling of knowing what will happen next. (TEDx Talks, August 23, 2023)


Conclusion

So why am I experiencing déjà vu so often? In reality, I would need extensive mental and physical testing to know the trigger of my personal experiences, but based on my research, I can make an educated guess. There are two possible reasons I could be experiencing this phenomenon more often. The first simply being an increase in fatigue. Entering a new chapter in someone's life can be taxing for everyone, and my transition from high school to college was no different. As the author of The Déjà Vu Experience, Alan S. Brown explains, déjà vu is "a brief break in one's ongoing perceptual processing that gives rise to an impression of separate and duplicated experiences" (Brown, P. 173), often occurring more regularly when a person is tired. The second reason leans away from a scientific theory. I could be experiencing something anomalous or a form of a hallucination, possibly due to the paranormal. My uncle passed away after completing his college education at UNC Asheville, and it is possible I'm unconsciously affected by his passing from being somewhere he spent so much time in his life, leading me to experience a form of hallucination. As to which reason I believe is more likely to be the cause of the regularity of my déjà vu, I lean towards the scientific explanation because I know I have an increase in fatigue, but there is no way to prove I am unconsciously affected by my uncle's passing.


 Image from Déjà vu: Newman, Tim. Re-experiencing the unexperienced, Medical News Today, June 14, 2017. (Accessed October 22, 2023)  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317895 . Depicted with the caption, "Many of us will have experienced déjà vu, yet none of us seem to know why." 

"high similarity between otherwise distinct scenes by creating identical spatial layouts between them." (TEDx Talks, “The fascinating relationship between déjà vu and premonition | Anne Cleary | TEDxLiverpool” August 23, 2018, Ted Talk,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6qXYJkhDc&list=PPSV  (Accessed October 28, 2023) )

Virtual scenes from Cleary's first study converted into virtual tours. (TEDx Talks, “The fascinating relationship between déjà vu and premonition | Anne Cleary | TEDxLiverpool” August 23, 2018, Ted Talk,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6qXYJkhDc&list=PPSV  (Accessed October 28, 2023) )