The Origin of Deja Vu.

Dave Mosher
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Thu Jun 7, 2:20 PM ET


The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for “episodic” memories—information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart.

The finding helps explain where déjà vu originates in the brain, and why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients, said MIT neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa. The study is detailed today in the online version of the journal Science.

Like a computer logging its programs’ activities, the dentate gyrus notes a situation’s pattern—it’s visual, audio, smell, time and other cues for the body’s future reference. So what happens when its abilities are jammed?

When Tonegawa and his team bred mice without a fully-functional dentate gyrus, the rodents struggled to tell the difference between two similar but different situations.

“These animals normally have a distinct ability to distinguish between situations,” Tonegawa said, like humans. “But without the dentate gyrus they were very mixed up.”

Déjà vu is a memory problem, Tonegawa explained, occurring when our brains struggle to tell the difference between two extremely similar situations. As people age, Tonegawa said déjà-vu-like confusion happens more often—and it also happens in people suffering from brain diseases like Alzheimer’s. “It’s not surprising,” he said, “when you consider the fact that there’s a loss of or damage to cells in the dentate gyrus.”

As an aging neuroscientist, Tonegawa admitted it’s a typical phenomenon with him. “I do a lot of traveling so I show up in brand new airports, and my brain tells me it’s been here before,” he said. “But the rest of my brain knows better.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070607/sc_livescience/originofdejavupinpointed

I had always wondered why we (humans) get that deja vu feeling..Now I know-blush

 

I've always been wondering too..its interesting...thanks =)

 

i hate it when i get deja vu, you think its happened before but cant pinpoint it, so just get confused...

 

My life is full of deja vu...@_@

 

-lolyou're welcome, didnt think that anyone would be interested in the article, but I thought it was abit interesting, so decided to share it anyway..

lol me too

 

WHAT?! my teacher's been lyin to me then == ....

she said deja vu happens cos before we were born our whole life was played before our eyes...and when we live thru it physically...gettin deja vu means that this place, person, situation etc is supposed to happen...so the more u have it...the more ur life is on track.or some effin BULLshit like that T_________T

but yeah..i've only had deja vu...twice or somethin...

love mon`

 

Thanks Suga for the article, I've known that deja-vu is a memory problem ever since I researched on it a few years back, but never get around to know the EXACT location or cells of the cause.

This is quite interesting, I have deja-vu all the time... Does that mean I am suffering brain disease?! -shock

 

This post feels like a dejavue after reading the artical. lol

 

hm, that sounds more of a religiously based idea/belief than scientific.

lol No prob. Thats what I thought when I read the article, I was like, "my brain is diseased??"-down

lol what a coincidence...-lol

 

i remember one saying its a delay (or some kind of miss-timing) to do with the signals from the eye to the brain, so it seems like youve done it before

 

This is interesting news. I have had several deja vu feelings before in the past, really weird they are.