


For two centuries people have tried to come up with reasons we experience déjà vu. Déjà vu studies must depend on personal descriptions and recollection for data. Next, we'll look at how researchers have studied this phenomenon.ĭéjà vu is extremely difficult to study because it occurs briefly, unannounced, only in certain people, and has no witnesses or physical manifestations other than the person saying, "hey, déjà vu!" Because of this, there is little firm research and no definitive explanations. The person experiencing it may truly believe they've been through the exact situation before, rather than getting a feeling that quickly passes.ĭéjà vu also occurs with some predictability in major psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, dissociative disorders and schizophrenia. However, some researchers say that this type of déjà vu is distinctly different from typical déjà vu. This has given researchers a slightly more reliable way of studying déjà vu, and they've been able to identify the areas of the brain where these types of déjà vu signals originate. Just before having a seizure they often experience a strong feeling of déjà vu. Biological déjà vu There are also high occurrences of déjà vu among people with temporal lobe epilepsy.Many researchers think that this type of déjà vu is a memory-based experience and assume that the memory centers of the brain are responsible for it. You see, hear, smell or otherwise experience something that stirs a feeling that you associate with something you've seen, heard, smelled or experienced before. Associative déjà vuThe most common type of déjà vu experienced by normal, healthy people is associative in nature.Unlike true déjà vu, which typically lasts from 10 to 30 seconds, these false memories or hallucinations can last much longer.

False memories that are brought on by schizophrenia can be confused with déjà vu as well. Hallucinations that are brought on by illness or drugs sometimes bring a heightened awareness and are confused with déjà vu. See the Déjà Vu and Precognitive Dreams section.) (However, one theory about déjà vu deals with precognitive dreams that give us a "déjà vu feeling" afterwards. Precognitive experiences - if they are real - show things that will happen in the future, not things that you've already experienced. An important distinction is that déjà vu is experienced during an event, not before.

The most common misuse of the term déjà vu seems to be with precognitive experiences - experiences where someone gets a feeling that they know exactly what's going to happen next, and it does. Researchers have their own definitions, but generally déjà vu is described as the feeling that you've seen or experienced something before when you know you haven't. There are often references to déjà vu that aren't true déjà vu. French scientist Emile Boirac, one of the first to study this strange phenomenon, gave the subject its name in 1876. Déjà vu is a French term that literally means "already seen" and has several variations, including déjà vécu, already experienced déjà senti, already thought and déjà visité, already visited.
