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Déjà Vu - Why Does the Present Sometimes Feel Like the Past?
The strange feeling that you've experienced a completely new moment before
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The Smarter Brain Team
Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins
3 Ideas for Better Habits
A Familiar Feeling
Neil Gaiman is a British author known for fantasy, mythology, and speculative fiction.
“There's an expression, deja vu, that means that you feel like you've been somewhere before.”
Source: The Graveyard Book
The Familiarity of the Unknown
Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and historian whose books examined knowledge, society, psychology, institutions, and the ways people understand reality.
“Madness is the déjà-vu of death.”
Already Seen, Already Lived
V. E. Schwab is an American author known for fantasy and speculative fiction.
“Déjà vu. Déjà su. Déjà vécu. Already seen. Already known. Already lived.”
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Productivity Tools and Resources
What Déjà Vu Can Teach Us About Memory
The APA interviews cognitive neuropsychologist Chris Moulin, a specialist in déjà vu and jamais vu. The article explains current ideas about why déjà vu happens and what studying it can teach us about how memory works. Read more here.
How Does Science Explain Déjà Vu?
Explores scientific explanations for déjà vu and discusses the possibility that the sensation reflects the brain detecting a mismatch between familiarity and actual recollection. It also discusses research suggesting that recognizing the feeling as an error may itself reflect healthy memory-monitoring processes. Read more here.
Revisit Your Memories
Day One - A digital journaling app that lets you record experiences and revisit them later. Its On This Day feature can make it especially interesting for a topic about memory and the feeling that the present resembles the past.
Train Your Memory
Elevate - A brain-training app with exercises involving memory, attention, processing, and comprehension. It provides an interactive way to explore some of the cognitive abilities involved in remembering and recognizing information.
What We're Reading
American Psychological Association’s Newsletter - The American Psychological Association's newsletter delivers research news, scientific developments, interviews, and analysis in psychology. It's a strong choice for following new research about memory and cognition.
Neuroscience News Newsletter - A free newsletter featuring neuroscience headlines, research summaries, and links to scientific articles. It is particularly relevant to déjà vu because the phenomenon is studied through memory and brain mechanisms.
Brain Food
Today I Learned: Déjà vu is extremely common. A major review of previous research estimated that approximately 60% of people have experienced it, with reported frequency tending to decrease with age. (Source)
Science: A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 46 studies estimated that ordinary, non-seizure-related déjà vu had been experienced by about 74% of healthy participants in the included studies. The researchers also found that déjà vu associated with epilepsy is a distinct phenomenon rather than simply the same experience occurring more frequently. (Source)
Have a productive rest of your week,
The Smarter Brain Team
Resource Spotlight
Déjà Vu, Memory, and Why the Present Can Feel Strangely Familiar
Monthly dispatches rooted in psychology, not paranormal explanations-this one's about one of the brain's most fascinating experiences: the sudden feeling that you've lived through a moment before, even when you know you haven't. Explore how psychologists are using déjà vu to better understand memory, familiarity, recognition, and the way our brains construct our experience of reality.
Déjà Vu, Memory, and Why the Present Can Feel Like the Past
Monthly dispatches rooted in psychology and neuroscience, not paranormal explanations-this one's about the eerie feeling that you've experienced the present moment before. Explore how déjà vu may emerge when the brain detects similarities between a current experience and an older memory, creating a powerful sense of familiarity even when you can't consciously recall the original event.
Déjà Vu, Memory Errors, and Why the Present Can Feel Like the Past
Monthly dispatches rooted in neuroscience, not supernatural explanations-this one's about the mysterious moment when a completely new experience suddenly feels deeply familiar. Explore how the brain's systems for familiarity and conscious recollection work together, and what happens when those processes fall out of sync.
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