Deja

Thursday November 30, 2006 - 3:14PM EDT

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Optical brain pathway delay?  What the fuck. Brain science has a long way to go. Now I am no brain scientist  obviously but I've thought about deja vu quite a bit. And not just thought I've done some research into brain function so I am not just coming up with baseless thinking. I never heard the optical pathway theory or the comment about familiarity section of the brain. My layman's theory on deja vu is this. Deja vu is simply a false memory. It is what happens when your brain processes input that is similar enough to past memories to trigger parts of the memory just enough to initiate a phantom conscious recall of the memory. However it is not a strong as actual recall and hence the weird feeling that we know it but we don't.  I came to this theory after thinking about how I felt when deja vu happened and the environment around me when it happened. What I found is that inevitable many of the times I felt deja vu if I analyzed the situation and I could find varying degrees of similarities to past memories. Basic things like the shape of the room I was in to the time of day to the people I was around. The similarities were slight but more times than not if I broke down a situation there was something I could distinct pick out as being a real part of my past memories. It was after reading Jeff Hawkins On Intelligence that I reinforced my idea to a certain extent and gave me a scientific basis for my theory. This is not something I would be my life on but I think it is a least a good start to do some real research. Jeff Hawkins describes his theory of neocortical function and a memory predictive framework. Meaning that our neocortex (the part of the brain that handles all the thinking) functions based on predicting outcomes based on past experience. It predicts by processing input through a complex forward and reverse feedback hierarchy.  The most basic forms of  input though is not accessible by our higher conscious though. For example when we hear a word we are not really hearing a whole words but a complex rapid serious of air vibrations against a bone in our ear the translates them into a virtually infinite combination of electrical pulses.. So then what the brain does is take those electrical pulses and processes it through the predictive hierarchy until it gets to a level high enough to fire enough neurons to forms what we call a word.  When I read about that theory I thought my deja vu theory would fit in with that. The minute inputs the we recieve through our senses although extremely varied are probably remarkably similar in many cases. The wider variation that we get is caused by our brain processing and organization. Almost forgot one key point the Jeff Hawkins made in his theory. It was that the brain doesn't store discrete pieces of information like a computer harddrive. Since it recognizes things on a very low level like the amplitude and frequency of an electrical impulse it only needs to store that particular electrical impulse once. However that particular impulse could be a part of any number of memories. So a full memory is contingent upon the organization of these impulses not each discrete one. This is important because it means that one particular impulse could be part of both the memory of your favorite video game and the memory of your most hated food. Also Jeff Hawkins mentions that when our brain processes memory it uses a weighted scale to go through the hierarchy. It does simply look at each impulse and see if it matches perfect what we have in their already move to the next level of organization. Our brain looks at the impulse and sees if it is a close enough match and if it is it moves it to the next level. This means that on occasion that it might not be the correct match but the next level still gets told it is.

So back to deja vu. Remember I said that when I analyzed my deja vu  situations  I found similarities to past memories however  minute they were  I had some prior memory of something in the deja vu situation. If we apply that neocortical theory then it makes sense. What is happening is that those similarities are being sent too far up into the hierarchy until they get to the memory stage so it seems like you are recalling something. But what is likely that although it is strong enough to invoke a memory it is not strong enough to fully realize it.  Memories are not discrete things in our mind they are a complex hierarchal firing of patterns of neurons. With that said then you can understand how if deju vu is the false recognition of input too far up the hierarchy then you would get something like a memory but not an actual one. I would honestly love to do a study on deja vu. I bet I would find that in every single deja vu situation we could pick out similarities from past memories. I think even refine an experiment to the point were I could invoke deja vu without people detecting consciously that I it was done on purpose.  The question in my mind is what kinds of inputs invoke deja vu. Inputs in a higher level sense.  Like time of day, or colors, shadows, spatial relationships. And also does it vary from person to person what kinds of input invoke deja vu? Are certain people more susceptible to deja vu with certain kinds of input? Are certain kinds of input more likely to invoke deja vu?

At the end of the article I linked to, the university rep said he would love to see neuroimaging of someone during a deja vu situation but it is hard to produce on command. Neuroimaging would be awesome to look at and I think in the right setup you could get someone to have them on demand. Actually I am going to email this guy just to see if he will respond and see if he can maybe point me in the right direction to further research.