Have you ever experienced something that
you could have sworn already happened?
Think you've seen this episode already?
Wait a minute, did I already ask that?
Well, you might be experiencing
the mysterious phenomenon of déjà vu.
While déjà vu feels like a memory to us,
is there any way we could control it?
You might think that déjà vu
is a glitch in the matrix.
Well, in some ways, it is.
But instead of computer code,
your brain's electrical signals
are the source of the glitch.
As cognitive psychologist Dr. Anne Cleary
mentions in her TED Talk,
certain groups of people
with neurological conditions
experience déjà vu more than others.
People with temporal lobe epilepsy
often experience a flurry of electrical signals
in the memory centers of the brain.
For many people with this condition,
déjà vu is often a warning sign of a seizure.
But don't worry,
it's also a sign of a healthy brain.
"Do you ever have déjà vu,
Mrs. Lancaster?"
"I don't think so,
but I could check with the kitchen."
So how do we actually know
if what we're remembering
is real or just déjà vu?
According to Adam Zeman,
a clinical neurologist
at the University of Exeter in the U.K.,
it looks like a healthy brain experiences déjà vu
in the same way as someone with epilepsy.
About two-thirds of people
experience déjà vu in their lifetime.
If you travel
or feel tired and stressed a lot,
you're more likely
to start misremembering things.
Fatigue and stress
can strain your temporal lobe,
the area of the brain where memories form.
And traveling
will give you an abundance of experiences
that your brain can misinterpret
as real memories.
Woah, I could have sworn
I've tasted this cheese before.
Oh, right,
it was at that fromagerie I went to in France.
Ah, mon Dieu.
People who remember their dreams
are also more prone to déjà vu.
So if you're eager to experience
this weird phenomenon,
maybe keep a dream journal.
Or, if all else fails,
you could medically trigger déjà vu
through electrodes in the medial temporal lobe.
But that might be a little extreme.
It's believed that some areas
of the temporal lobe
contribute to the feeling of familiarity.
But, I'm pretty sure I already knew that.
Chris Moulin, a cognitive neuropsychologist
and leading researcher of déjà vu,
believes that other areas of the brain
are involved as well.
He suggests that
we become aware of a memory being false
in the prefrontal cortex.
But what if these so-called false memories
are glimpses of the future?
Can we remember something
before it happens?
A research study conducted by Dr. Anne Cleary
of Colorado State University
found that participants felt like
they could see the future
while experiencing déjà vu.
Some people even believe that
déjà vu is a way of remembering a past life.
But what if we're thinking
of a similar experience that we already had?
Likely our brains are experiencing
the familiarity of some scrambled memory.
So if you're sure you've met someone before,
well, they might just look like someone
you've seen in a movie.
Or quite literally,
the man of your dreams.
If you own and run a business
like we do here at Underknown,
sometimes you just can't rely on your memory.
What am I doing in the living room?
I'm supposed to be running a company!
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Okay, if you're still convinced
that you remember moments in the future,
Precognition is just science fiction,
as far as we know.
An 80-year-old man with Alzheimer's disease
had such an extreme case of déjà vu
that he claimed to remember everything.
It was so striking
that he refused to watch television
or read the news.
Everything felt like a re-run to him.
However, this is a pretty rare case.
Déjà vu usually peaks in young adulthood,
around the ages of 15 to 25.
It then gradually goes away with age.
If you're afraid you're experiencing
too much déjà vu,
well, consider getting
eight hours of sleep every night,
cutting down on caffeine,
and take up relaxing activities
like yoga or tai chi.
If it's more than a few times a month,
you might want to see a doctor,
even if you think you've already seen one.
Although these days we have
a fairly good scientific understanding of déjà vu,
there's still a lot we don't know.
If you genuinely feel like
you're stuck in a time loop,
well, don't worry.
That's a story for another What If.