Angel Susantin (Week 2) - Déjà Vu? Déjà Vu.

Déjà Vu? Déjà Vu.

by: Angel Susantin

he's totally been in this place before

Have you ever experienced the sensation of having experienced something that has happened in the past? Well, that’s called déjà vu, and despite the bizarre feelings it evokes, it is actually pretty harmless and common.


According to experts like Dr. Akira O'Connor, a senior psychology professor at the University of St. Andrews, déjà vu is essentially a conflict between feelings of familiarity and the awareness that the familiarity is misplaced. It is the awareness that your brain is tricking you that makes this memory illusion so unique compared to other memory events. 


Neuroscientists have determined that déjà vu is by no means a memory error, even with its confusing nature. Even healthy humans tend to misremember things; it is simply part of human biology and nature. The fact that our memories involve billions of neurons means that memory is bound to get tangled at times. Therefore, for many people, experiencing déjà vu may actually be a sign of a healthy brain (if not occurring unusually) because according to O'Connor, it occurs when the frontal regions of the brain "attempt to correct an inaccurate memory." Although scientists today do not know exactly what happens in the brain during the event, the same idea stands: déjà vu takes place in areas of the brain like the temporal love, which feed the mind's frontal lobe signals that a past experience is repeating itself, even if it is not real. On another note, recent research has highlighted a possible link between dopamine (the neurotransmitter) and déjà vu.


O'Connor estimates that a healthy person is likely to experience this memory illusion once a month on average. Around 60% of the Earth's population has reported experiencing déjà vu. However, among other symptoms that could possibly occur, feeling tired and stressed (chronic or astute) may include experiencing déjà vu more often. What is more surprising is that younger people tend to get déjà vu more than older people, despite the idea that older people are expected to have more memory quirks. This may be because younger peoples' brains are generally more active and have a healthy fact-checking frontal lobe. 


So, have you ever experienced the sensation of having experienced something that has happened in the past? Whoa. Anyways, tell me more about it and your thoughts on the topic!


Image: knowyourmeme.com/memes/deja-vu

Article: www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/deja-vu/




Comments

angie cheng said…
Dear Angel,

HIGHER ON THE STREETS AND I KNOW ITS MY TIME TO GOOO CALLING YOU AND THE SEARCH IS A MYSTERYYY…banger song fr! Thank you for bring more insight and psychological factors into deja vu. Honestly, it happens quite often for me. I will dream of something and weeks later, I feel like I have…ahem…just been in this place before. Honestly most were like classroom events and little things.
Naomi Lin said…
Hi Angel,
I always get deja vu. I guess that means I have a healthy brain which is nice! I think it is super cool how our brain is so complex and doing so many things at a time. Usually, when I get deja vu, I can vividly remember saying the exact same thing at the same place, which I do a lot because I repeat my words a lot. I'm not sure if I usually get deja vu when I'm tired or stressed though. I also only began getting deja vu recently, in the past 2 years maybe at most. I wonder how often younger children get deja vu and how strong the correlation between age and deja vu is.
Simran said…
Hi Angel. I thought your post was fascinating. Déjà vu is something that I can relate to since I have experienced it multiple times. It is always a weird feeling because I feel so certain that a similar instance has occurred before, but at the same time I am always so confused as to when that same experience has happened to me. Sometimes, though, I realize that I went through a similar experience in one of my dreams rather than in real life. Has that ever happened to you?
Mrinmayee Sama said…
Hi Angel,

It’s so funny because I literally just experienced deja vu like five minutes ago when I was writing Angie’s blog comment and my brother was annoying me LOL. I was actually surprised of the fact that usually we only experience once a month and here I am experiencing it once a week. I actually learnt of this topic in 8th grade and I was so confused before learning this but now I am glad that I am able to understand what is happening.

Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
Erika Luo said…
Hi Angel,
I feel like I get deja vu way too often. So much so that I actually thought that I was a psychic when I was younger. Your blog about deja vu was very informative; I learned a lot about the overall concept of it and the scientific nature behind it. I find deja vu particularly because it dates back so far How often do you experience deja vu?
Andrew Chao said…
Hi Angel,
Wow this post is amazing, yes sometimes I have flashbacks of some events when sometimes is much more clear while other times pretty fuzzy. I guess this is my brain changing inaccurate memories to be more accurate, constantly updating into a more clearer memory. I think it is also the process when the brain feels that one memory could finally be pulled out from the archive and experienced once again.
Faith Tong said…
Hi Angel,
I normally experience deja vu in my dreams. I’ll go to sleep, and have a dream, but once I wake up, I always have that feeling that I’ve been to the place in my dreams. It’s a weird feeling, like something I know, something I’m familiar with, but can’t quite put the pieces together. For example, I think there was a time when I dreamed about staying at a hotel, and there was a pond below us filled with koi fish. After some time trying to remember this feeling, I had a sudden realization that I actually went to this hotel when I was super young, probably around 3 years old. It’s crazy how dreams can give you deja vu!

Sincerely,
Faith Tong
I found your info on deja vu rather interesting. I've seen deja vu happen to many of my friends at random times, but it has never happened to me so far. The first time when I saw someone experience deja vu was at a restaurant with a few of my acquaintances. When one of my acquaintances picked up a napkin and said something, my friend started freaking out and said they swore that saw the same exact thing happen in the past. I find this phenomenon rather fascinating as I feel like its rather rare for same exact occurrences to take place.

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