Origin of Deja Vu Discovery
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Déjà vu — French for “already seen”, also called paramnesia from the Greek word para for parallel and mnimi for memory — describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. The experience of déjà vu is often accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and a sense of ‘eeriness’, ‘strangeness’, or ‘weirdness’. The ‘previous’ experience is usually attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a strong sense that the experience actually happened in the past. Déjà vu has been described as “Remembering the future”. Photo Grapefruitmoon
The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. A new study suggests only a small portion of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for ‘episodic’ memories — information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart, reports Live Science.
The finding helps explain where déjà vu originates in the brain, and why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients, said MIT neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa, detailed in the online version of the journal Science.
Like a computer logging its programs’ activities, the dentate gyrus notes a situation’s pattern — it’s visual, audio, smell, time and other cues for the body’s future reference. So what happens when its abilities are jammed?
When Tonegawa and his team bred mice without a fully-functional dentate gyrus, the rodents struggled to tell the difference between two similar but different situations.
“These animals normally have a distinct ability to distinguish between situations,� Tonegawa said, like humans. “But without the dentate gyrus they were very mixed up.�
Déjà vu is a memory problem, Tonegawa explained, occurring when our brains struggle to tell the difference between two extremely similar situations. As people age, Tonegawa said déjà -vu-like confusion happens more often It also happens in people suffering from brain diseases like Alzheimer’s. “It’s not surprising,� he said, “when you consider the fact that there’s a loss of or damage to cells in the dentate gyrus.�
As an aging neuroscientist, Tonegawa admitted it’s a typical phenomenon with him. “I do a lot of traveling so I show up in brand new airports, and my brain tells me it’s been here before,� he said. “But the rest of my brain knows better.�
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Very cool post. I’m getting older (40), so I guess that I’ll experience Deja Vu more. Great blog overall by the way.
Thanks so much David
I was surprised to see that it affects people more so as they age.
I used to experience it now and then when I was younger, but now not so much.
[...] off, have you ever had Déjà vu? Well here’s an interesting article on the origins of Déjà vu. I found it in the wonderful business blog belonging to Fast Lane Transport Ltd. of [...]
Deja vu all over again,
Interesting article, but, when I got about half way through I got this strange feeling I had read it before……
Very interesting article. Though, through the middle of writing this, I’ve got a feeling I had wrote it before..Oh well! I am getting older so this may happen!