Page 13 - Annonce Dergi | İzmir Özel Saint-Joseph Fransız Lisesi

Everyday Mystery: In the past few decades, many scientific theories
about the experience of “déjà vu” have been

Déjà vu proposed. However, recent advances in brain and
cognitive psychology have divided theories into
four categories. Attentional explanations make up
the first of four categories. External distractions
and interruptions while the subject is working on
“It’s a real puzzle. We don’t know what causes it, something, may trick the brain to think an event has
what triggers it, who has it and who doesn’t, and already occurred when the subject refocuses on the
why. We don’t even understand why it dissipates main task. The first perception of the surrounding
with age,” explained Alan Brown, a professor in environment occurs when the subject’s attention
Southern Methodist University (Foer, 4). Déjà vu is drops. However, the second action takes place
a sense of familiarity, which was first studied, and in a state of full concentration. The differences in
given its name, meaning ‘already seen’, in 1876 the brain’s way of perception creates the illusion
by Emile Boirac. The sensation is experienced by of familiarity, which has been cited as a possible
70% of the population at least once in a lifetime, cause behind deja vu. Theories about memory
lasting a few seconds only (Obringer, 3). Since it’s lapses fall into the second category. Rhinal cortex is
hard to study and describe, not much research the gatekeeper of the declarative memory system,
can be done on déjà vu. However, as a result of which detects stimulus similarities between stored
the experiments, it’s claimed that the number of events and new information. If the interaction
déjà vu experiences decrease with age. While it’s between the rhinal cortex and hippocampus,
more common in teens and young adults, middle- the storage of long-term memories and easily
aged people experience the sensation mostly once overlooked memories, become uncoordinated,
a year. Moreover, the more educated, travelled, the recall of new information will be delayed, and
wealthy and liberal the person is, the more the the subject will feel as if they have experienced
experiences are being observed. Over the years, something before. Furthermore, the occupancy
many scientific and spiritual theories have tried of the subject is the criterion in the category,
to explain the unexplainable phenomena, but the and claimed to be the reason for the strange
reasons for déjà vu are still unknown. phenomenon. The more the subject is occupied
with tasks, the more the mistakes will occur in the
processing period (Reichelt, 2). Dual processing, the
theory that has the most experiments on, takes part
in the third category. If two synchronous cognitive
processes that should overlap are remembered
at different times, they will immediately become
asynchronous. The dissonance creates ‘out of synch’
memories which are believed to lead to déjà vu (“4
Possible Explanations for Déjà Vu.”, 2). The fourth
and final category is the Neurological explanations.
Whether patients suffer from epilepsy or temporal
lobe damage, they will suffer from chronic déjà
vu, triggered by electrodes. However, patients

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