What Causes Déjà Vu?
The processes of Déjà Vu happening
No doubt on most people once has experienced an incident about feeling the current situation or circumstance had exactly happened in the past. This kind of occurrence is called Déjà vu: the origin of the word came from French which means “already seen” — the term traditionally accepted worldwide and mentioned as in major titles of thousands of articles.
“Déjà vu is any subjectively inappropriate impression of familiarity of the present experience with an undefined past”-Neppe, 1983, p. 3
According to most scientific research, Déjà vu can frequently occur once in most young people every couple of months. Most qualitative researches dedicate that Déjà Vu occurs in 67% of the population in daily lives (Jersakova et l., 2014). Most researchers studied the process of Déjà vu qualitatively by sharing different theories or results through quantitative research in laboratories using memory devices, questionnaires in between healthy people groups and patients with neurological disorders.
The major causes of Déjà vu fall into three categories; Dual-Processing, Memory Disorder, and Neurological Processes.
Dual-Processing
Dual-Processing is a disruption of the operation of two separate but interactive cognitive processes which can lead to independent activities such as familiarity and retrieval(recollection) are operating in parallel. According to dual-process, retrieval can be active in the absence of familiarity while the information of familiarity is retrieved which can cause memorably unfamiliar.
In Dual-Process, cognitive resources are mostly focused on out-going events while distraction, inattention, and fatigue can lead to memory and perception which are enfolding on at the same time (Strongman, 2012). Individuals have two types of consciousness: normal or extroverted which processes information from outside and parasitic, which is introverted processing information from inner thoughts or reflection of memory. Approaching sensory information will evaluate by depending more on parasites, internal consciousness when the activity of extroverted consciousness is distracting or temporary seizure.
Consequently, Déjà vu, misreading new experiences as old ones will occur when the processes of two functions combine in the state of fatigue which is causing the temporal displacement (2012).
Memory Disorder
Memory explanation is one of the major theories of implicit familiarity which is the basis of the phenomenon of Déjà vu. However, memory encoding and retrieval either store or operate for recollection, memory, and encoding may not parallel work, but memory is a major outcome of all of the input processes.
The phenomenon of Déjà vu is considered to be delusional. It is distributed from the two functions: remembering including recollection of episodic memory — long-term memory which needs effort and knowledge, the retrieval of sensory memory — a brief memory which needs automatic. The information in sensory memory is long enough to be transmitted into short-term memory.
In Déjà vu occurrence, memory responses are based on the strong impression of implicit familiarity in the absence of explicit retrieval. The purpose of the Déjà vu occurrence is that theta coherence, the function of brain waves, increases when the hippocampus is encoding and recollecting the dual sensation of recall without retrieval (Strongman, 2012).
Neurological Processes
According to neurological explanations, the occurrence of Déjà vu relates to the delay of neural transmission in the brain. The neural transmission can be found in the hippocampus which is the area involving encoding and retrieval, increasing its electrical outflow can misinterpret the familiarity and temporal lobes which receive inappropriate information.
The delay of neural transmission occasionally occurs due to a slow processing time, which draws out in length between sensation and perception in the two neural pathways. The primary pathway of perceptual goes to the dominant brain hemisphere while the secondary pathway routes through the dominant and non-dominant, but the extension of non-dominant may result in Déjà vu occurrences. At the same time, the temporary delay caused by the motion of electricity in the dominant hemisphere transmits in a secondary pathway.
This delaying process can transmit the new information as old information into familiar memory with slight suspension which turns out to be called Déjà vu (Strongman, 2012).
Since Déjà vu occurs due to biological terms and common senses, such doubtful or ridiculous thoughts which is like having a sixth sense should be thrown away. The causes of Déjà vu cannot be dangerously affected physically and mentally on the individual. However, for those ones who are uncomfortable or being disturbed by Déjà vu feeling…
How to Get rid of Déjà vu feeling?
- Reduce Stress
- Get Enough Sleep
- Eat Properly
- Avoid Certain Drugs
References
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/20183318>
Neppe, V. M. (1983h). The psychology of déjà vu: Have I been here before? Johannesburg, South Africa: Witwatersrand University Press.
<https://www.rhine.org/images/jp/v74Spr2010/eNeppe2010sp.pdf>
