In the new TV series ‘Déjà Vu’, to be seen from tonight on Play4, the characters literally travel through time. Chances are that you too have been overcome by the feeling that you have already experienced something, while you know that this is impossible. Like the Flemish fiction series, this phenomenon bears the name ‘déjà vu’ and scientists have been puzzling over it since the 19th century. HLN science expert Martijn Peters explains what we now know about it.
We’ve all heard about it or even experienced it… a déjà vu. The moment when the feeling overtakes you that you – what you are experiencing at that moment – have already experienced. And that while you realize very well that this is actually not possible at all. There is, as it were, a short circuit going on in your brain, a battle between an objective observation of unfamiliarity and a subjective sense of familiarity. Normally, a sense of familiarity almost always corresponds to objective reality. For example, when you walk into your house. If this is not the case, then this is of course extra hard to notice.
About two-thirds of the population will experience déjà vu in their lifetime. Some even several times. Usually the trigger for such an experience is a visit to a certain place. Therefore, it seems to be more common in people who travel regularly. In addition, a conversation often provokes a déjà vu. The older you are, the lower the chance that you (still) experience it. Your gender does not seem to have an influence, but whether you are tired and stressed does.
A possible explanation for déjà vu is that memories could subconsciously influence our experience.
Memories from a past life or our brain playing tricks on us?
But is there a scientific explanation for that feeling of déjà vu? Because often you come across explanations with a paranormal touch. For example, that the feeling would be connected to a past life or psychic abilities. Unfortunately, there is no unequivocal answer to that question from science. But that does not mean that science has been sitting still, because there are a lot of hypotheses. You can divide them into four categories: dual processing, neurological, memory and attention.
Bee dual processing is based on the assumption that there is a disturbance in the normal functioning of two processes in the brain that are involved with each other. For example, that they are no longer synchronized or that one of the two is simply not activated. At the neurological category scientists suggest that there is a neurological problem at the root, such as changes in the speed of signals in our brains.
The third category suspects us memory fooling us. For example, memories could subconsciously influence our experience. Finally, there is the category that sees a connection between déjà vu and our attentiveness or the lack thereof. For example, you would observe something unconsciously because you are distracted and then consciously perceive it again when you are attentive. This gives you that familiar feeling without realizing that you already experienced it a fraction of a second ago.
So far, science has failed to answer us. Maybe that can be found in one of those categories, maybe in all four. The scientists continue to search enthusiastically and in the meantime we can continue to be amazed by a déjà vu.
Déjà Vu’ can be seen on Play4 from Thursday, November 17 at 9 p.m.
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