Neuroscience Series 2: Deja Vu

Did you ever visit a place for the first time or meet a person for the first time and feel that you had already been there or met that person earlier? This is called Deja vu, which’s a French word meaning “already seen”. And I am sure many of us had this experience at least once.

Deja Vu occurs because of a short circuit in the brain. It is usually connected to someone’s memory because it only happens in the temporal lobe.  The temporal lobe is the part of your brain that contains memories which is what deja vu feeds off of. This makes your brain experience something that has already you think has already happened. 

We can infer that it is the temporal lobe that is targeted by Deja vu because the people who have temporal lobe epilepsy recall having deja vu right before seizures. This is also a cause for some people to think that Deja Vu is a bad omen. In the moment of Deja vu, it can affect the behavior of the person along with feelings, motor functions, and senses. Additionally, it can be caused by high levels of stress which is mostly caused by fatigue. To help lower Deja vu, get more physical activity and sleep. 

At the end of the day, deja vu is just a weird feeling you get at arbitrary moments in your life. We still have much to learn about it and more experimenting needs to be done. This is only the inception of our knowledge of deja vu.