.Patients Suffer Déjà Vu … Over and Over

[Dover]

Patients Suffer Déjà Vu … Over and Over

By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 30 January 2006
01:34 pm ET

Imagine suffering from chronic déjà vu. You don't even go to the doctor because you feel like you've already been there.

"We had a peculiar referral from a man who said there was no point visiting the clinic because he'd already been there, although this would have been impossible," said psychologist Chris Moulin, who runs a memory clinic at the University of Leeds in the UK.

So Moulin has started the first known study of the condition.

Déjà vu hits most of us now and then. We're struck by the sensation that we have experienced an event before, even though we can't fully remember it or perhaps know it didn't really happen. The sensation is fleeting, so researchers can't study it.

But Moulin figures chronic déjà vu sufferers offer an opportunity to do research that might unlock the secrets of the everyday variety.

The man who thinks he's been to Moulin's clinic even gave details of the visit that never occurred. He has déjà vu so bad that he doesn't watch TV news because he feels like he's seen it all before, Moulin said. Things get tricky when the man is asked to predict what's ahead, however...cont'd

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060130_deja_vu.html

[On the Road]

1. Now Here's the Interesting Part:

"The exciting thing about these people is that they can 'recall' specific details about an event or meeting that never actually occurred," Moulin said. "It suggests that the sensations associated with remembering are separate to the contents of memory, that there are two different systems in the brain at work."

[rman]

5. That's not deja-vu.

Deja-vu is

"We're struck by the sensation that we have experienced an event before..."

It is as the event happens that we seem to remember having experienced it before. That's deja-vu (literally: "already seen").

That's entirely different then "recalling details about an event that never actually occurred".
That's more like deja-precognition or something.

[htuttle]

6. My theory on deja-vu is that it's a neurological 'echo' of some kind

I remember reading a story recently about a blind fellow who'd gotten some procedure that was supposed to restore his sight. Apparently, he still didn't think he could see after the operation, although he now had knowledge of things in the room that could only be detected by seeing them.

What they theorized was that the part of the brain that processess our sensory input hadn't caught on to this guy's new 'eye data', but that the raw data from his eyes was still making it's way to his brain without the processing that creates the mental 'image' we see. They hoped that over time, the 'software' would eventually catch on, and he'd 'see' normally.

I think that perhaps deja vu is when the raw signals from your eyes, and the data from your visual processing brain software get slightly out of sync so you receive one just before the other, leading to the sensation of deja-vu.

So no, you wouldn't recall details about an event that hadn't occurred yet. Well you would, but only a fraction of a second before they appeared to happen.

[mainegreen]

2. I feel like I've read this article before...

:7

[htuttle]

3. This is a duplicate post

Isn't it?

:evilgrin:

[mcscajun]

4. It's as Yoga Berra once said...

"This is like deja vu all over again."

Or did I already post this? :)