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Déjà Vu Is Not Just a Glitch in the Matrix

Sure you haven't read this article before?

Déjà vu—that feeling that you've previously experienced what you're experiencing at this moment—remains one of the most mysterious phenomena of human consciousness. In this video by Brit Lab, a science Youtube channel, the Factomania team explains how memory functions, how memory glitches, and what happens in the brain during déjà vu.

In scientific terms, déjà vu is called paramnesia, which describes distorted memory or confusion of fact and fantasy. In French, the term déjà vu, meaning already seen, was coined by psychic researcher Emile Boirac in his book The Future of Psychic Sciences.

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Nearly 60 percent of us have experienced déjà vu, but it remains difficult for scientists to study in lab conditions, given the infrequency and spontaneity of when it occurs. Still, a few theories help explain it.

Scientists in the 60s believed déjà vu was something of a "brain burp," or a delay in between the brain's processing of information. In the 80s, researchers at Washington University had a theory called "double perception," to describe getting distracted, not noticing something, and then feeling a sense of familiarity when that previously unnoticed thing comes back into your awareness. Another theory points to dysfunctional electric discharges in the brain, incorrectly activating the neuronal memory hub.

None of these theories are easy to prove.

In general, déjà vu can happen when one experience elicits a memory of another experience. In what's called "episodic memory," each part of a memory is stored in different parts of the brain. The video gives an example of going to a new restaurant, which has the same furniture as another restaurant you've already been to. That furniture might evoke the entire previous memory, rather than just the singular memory of the furniture, causing the person to feel as if they'd had the entire experience of the new restaurant before. This is a classic example of what researchers have found most intriguing about déjà vu: its simultaneous novel and familiar qualities.

So whether you've had déjà vu, or you've already read this article, now you know some of what's behind the brain's trippiest, drug-free function. Try not to forget.