![]() ![]() ![]() It’s only temporary.”Īt least two-thirds of people are estimated to get deja vu at some point. That might explain why people are more likely to get deja vu while tired or stressed, Moulin says, when the brain can start to “get all kinds of weird disturbances which are not unlike the disturbances you get with pathology, but you’re not ill. Really, it’s surprising that our brains don’t misfire more often.” “And I think when we get deja vu, it’s our memory cortex just malfunctioning. We might occasionally see a flash of something that’s not there, as our visual cortex misfires, or hear a phantom sound thanks to a mistake by our auditory cortex, Berkovic says. Our little grey cells aren’t perfect, after all. Neurologist Professor Sam Berkovic says you can think of deja vu as a “glitch” – but in our own brains. In the sci-fi thriller The Matrix, our hero Neo is told that deja vu is really a glitch in the artificial reality they are locked in (when the sudden reappearance of a black cat, now known to the internet as deja vu cat, signals coming danger.) After we realise we haven’t, the feeling generally starts to fade (unless you’re Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day, who at first mistakes the time loop he’s stuck in for deja vu.)Īt least two-thirds of people are estimated to get deja vu at some point. We might stop on a street corner, trying to remember when we’ve been there before. “That’s why it feels so weird.”Īnd of course, for most of us, deja vu is fleeting, however strong in the moment. “But when we get deja vu normally, we know something’s wrong,” says Moulin. AKP had persistent deja vecu (already lived). As well as “already seen”, there’s deja entendu (already heard), deja senti (already felt) and deja reve (already dreamed). The French actually have many names for deja vu. He acted on it, justified it with false memories.” “But we wouldn’t describe it as deja vu anymore because for them the feeling of familiarity is so intense they can’t overcome it. “I’ve worked with about 13 or 14 people like that,” says Moulin, who admits he “sort of became a deja vu researcher because there wasn’t a deja vu researcher” while trying to treat them. ![]() I t turned out, there were other cases like him – all older people (“so, late onset”), generally with some form of dementia or memory issue but otherwise very functional and engaged, as was AKP. This got pretty frustrating for his wife.” In fact, when he was first referred to the memory clinic where Moulin worked, AKP insisted he’d already been. “He’d invent far-fetched stories for how, he got to the newsagent that morning just as the papers were being unloaded. “He wouldn’t even read the newspaper because he said he’d already read it,” says Moulin. In fact, the man was convinced he was living his life over. Everything felt familiar to this 80 year old – every song, every TV show, snippets of conversation, strangers in the street. Moulin, now a memory researcher at the Universite Grenoble Alpes in France, first became interested in deja vu two decades ago when a woman came to him about a strange case: her husband, known as AKP, had what she called “permanent deja vu”. So, what is going on when deja vu hits? Is it a glitch in our heads – or the Matrix? And how are scientists using hypnosis, puzzles and The Sims video game to find out?Ĭredit: Artwork Aresna Villaneuva What is deja vu? But what he experienced isn’t uncommon, he says, a kind of faux prescience that extends the jolt of classic deja vu into something truly spooky. Thankfully, Moulin was not actually having a premonition that day and the plane kept on flying. It evolved into this sense of dread – because I also felt I knew what was coming and what was coming was the plane was about to nosedive.” Moulin recalls a particularly powerful wave of deja vu hitting while on a plane leaving Canada. Some people even become convinced they can predict what’s about to happen next, as if they are replaying a moment in time. In French it means, “already seen.” But the feeling of familiarity where there should be none can arrive with sound, taste, smell and more. Today, the neuropsychologist is a world expert on the strange phenomenon of deja vu. “It couldn’t be right but it was so strong,” he says. See all 10 stories.Ĭhris Moulin was visiting New York for the first time when he turned down a street and was suddenly struck by an impossible feeling: he’d been there before. ![]() Explainers aim to demystify conditions that touch thousands of Australians, and offer insights into the latest research. ![]()
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