Explanations of Deja Vu

For more than a century, researchers have proposed a variety of explanations for the deja vu experience. Many are framed within the psychodynamic and parapsychological perspectives, and the interested reader should consult Neppe (1983e) or Sno and Linszen (1990) for further details on these explanations.

Scientific interpretations of the deja vu experience fall into four categories: dual processing, neurological, memory, and attentional. The dualprocessing explanations assume that two cognitive processes that normally operate in synchrony become momentarily uncoordinated or out of phase. Neurological explanations suggest that deja vu represents a brief dysfunction in the nervous system involving either a small seizure or alteration in the normal time course of neuronal transmission. Memory interpretations assume that some aspect of the present setting is objectively familiar but that the source of familiarity has been forgotten. Finally, attentional interpretations posit that an initial perception under distraction is followed immediately by a second perception under full attention.

With respect to ultimately explaining the deja vu experience, the dual-processing and neurological positions are less useful than the attentional and memory explanations. The dual-processing interpretations have deep historical roots, but they are less clearly and precisely formulated and are grounded more in the theoretical-philosophical than in the empirical realm. The neurological positions are more logically compelling and molecular, but a laboratory test of these explanations may be problematic with today’s technology.

The attentional and memory interpretations of déjà vu make clear connections with current cognitive findings, and a number of possible empirical tests emanates from these two perspectives.