Hanyi #13 - Reliving the Past?
You are casually talking to a friend of yours, and all of a sudden you feel like you have had the exact same conversation before in the past. You walk into a room, and all of a sudden you feel like you were in the exact same room before. However, at the same time, you are almost certain you have never been in either of such scenarios in the past. This insanely relatable phenomenon has been dubbed the term "déjà vu," or the French translation of "already seen, and has since left modern scientists still uncertain about its mysterious causes.
One possible reason scientists have given for this "glitch in the brain" is the occurrence of an "electric malfunction" in the temporal lobe, the area of the brain that stores memories and detects familiarity (Thompson). When the temporal lobe's neurons that are dedicated to "recognition and familiarity" are mistakenly fired during random events, our brain thus interprets the present as a familiar event (Thompson). Because of this misinterpretation, we sometimes are convinced by our brain that a current event has already occurred in the past.
However, this idea is not wholly accepted within the scientific community. Another explanation for déjà vu has been described to be "discrepancies in the memory systems" of our brain (Thompson). This discrepancy ultimately leads our brain to "by-pass" storing the event in short-term memory and instead "reach long-term memory" (Thompson). Through this by-pass, our brain thus thinks a recent or current event is actually an event that occurred a long time ago since it is stored in our long-term memory.
These two explanations are obviously very different from one another. Even armed with the advanced technologies of today, our scientists are still struggling to form an agreement upon an explanation for the mysterious déjà vu. Hopefully, as our understanding of our complex brain evolve and future technologies are introduced, we can finally understand this mysterious confusion of the present being part of our memories.
Work Cited
Thompson, Lauren. “You Asked: What Causes Déjà Vu?” Vital Record, Texas A&M Health, 18 Apr. 2016, www.vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/you-asked-deja-vu-causes/.
Hey Hanyi! Deja vu is something that is extremely interesting to me because I get the feeling really often that I have already done something that I am doing right now, before. It is rather disorienting, and the studies that you have cited are certainly interesting especially in their diverse thoughts on the same subject. Maybe hopefully they can find in the future why my brain is misfiring and why I am getting the feeling I am rewatching the same movie for the 3rd time (it actually is the 3rd time).
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi, deja vu really trips me up sometimes. Sometimes I don't even get deja vu from the start of a situation. I would be doing something completely new, and in the middle of it one small particular detail would stand out to me and it would feel oddly familiar. After that, the more I thought about it, the more I feel like I'd been in a similar scenario before, but I can't tell if I have actually or if I am just experiencing deja vu. It makes me mildly uncomfy, whether it's the fact that I just can't seem to put my finger on what it was that I had done before or the fact that I can't tell if this is just my brain playing tricks on me.
ReplyDeleteHey Hanyi, I was always curious about why I get these feelings of deja vu at times, so I am glad that you covered possible reasons for this phenomenon. I have always thought that whenever I got deja vu, it was because I actually experienced the situation before and I just happened to be experiencing something similar that made me think the same thing was happening, so I was surprised to find out that this is just my brain misfiring. It is fascinating to think about how bizarre concepts in movies like a glitch in the system from The Matrix actually exist in our everyday lives. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHanyi, this was definitely an intriguing post to read. I have most definitely experienced this sense of déjà vu before. It will happen at these random instances like when I'm having a conversation with my mom, dad, sister, or friends I will feel as though I have already had this conversation with them before when in reality I have not. The first explanation for this déjà vu does make me believe that there is something wrong with my temporal lobe which scares me a bit. While the second reason makes me scared for my future weather, my memory will slowly disintegrate and mix up events in my head. Overall, this blog post has definitely given me something to think about.
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi! I am someone who experiences "déjà vu" fairly often. Although unlike being in a familiar room or having a similar conversation, I feel "déjà vu” with textures and emotions. Sometimes I picture the surface of a rubber ball and it makes me feel as if I have felt this exact texture before. It is the weirdest feeling of familiarity that is vague and unclear. I have always been interested in why "déjà vu" exists and I learned a lot from your blog. It was fascinating to know that "déjà vu” has to do with our memories and past experiences that we remember. Sadly, there is not too much current scientific research on the topic. I hope that more studies can be conducted to learn about "déjà vu" so we can better understand why such a feeling exists.
ReplyDeleteHey Hanyi! I remember having thought I experienced deja vu before, but it never occurred to me that it isn’t a scientifically established phenomenon that has been thoroughly studied. Your explanation about deja vu being a “glitch in the brain” was quite interesting especially because sometimes these feelings can be so convincing and strong and definitely not like a misinterpretation. The brain is quite mysterious, so while there is much to explore, I suppose deja vu is just a small glimpse at one of the wonders the brain can perform. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi, from reading your blog I realized that the most times I encounter deja vu are when I’m taking a math or physics test. Since these classes require a lot of brain power, I would lean towards the reasoning that these things happen because of a glitch in the brain. However, whenever I encounter deja vu, I felt that the scenario happened in a dream before and since they usually occurred during tests, I would try to think about whether I have seen the answers or not. Before reading your blog, I never thought about how common deja vu was. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi! Everyone knows of deja vu, but I've never really thought of how or why it occurs and what the science is behind this phenomenon. I find that I tend to feel deja vu whenever I'm having conversations with others or surrounded by people. The fact that it could be caused by a glitch in the brain had never crossed my mind, but that could be the case, as we truly feel like an instance has already happened with some conviction. It would be really interesting if we could do more research to learn the causes behind this phenomenon and how it works.
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