Your brain is a very complex machine. It has dozens of little nodules and nodes that are responsible for different functions. These nodes have billions of bridges between them so that information can pass around all the parts of the brain quickly.
Here's a very simplified process:
Your eyes see something, like your Mom making you a cup of coffee. That information goes to one part of the brain to check "do I recognise this". That checking part asks the memory "Hey, do we have a Cup-Of-Coffee memory today?"
Memory sends back "well, there's one in the Short Term memory right now, but we've already got boat load of Cup-Of-Coffee memories in Long Term. Do you want me to save another one there?" and the check one says "neh". So it sends a signal to your conciousness "this is usual, everything's fine, carry on". Our brains won't make a long-term memory of it, and after a few hours or at the end of the day, Short Term will just destroy the memory and it'll be gone.
But if this was something new and amazing; you see your first Ferrari, a nkaed person running down the street, or anything weird/new/unexperienced, you go through the same checks and the memory says "wow, that's new! Let me save a file of that!" The memory goes into Short Term, and at the end of the day it gets saved in Long Term.
With Deja Vu these processes get all mixed up. Your friend starts talking and you think "hey, you already told me about your dream of purple penguins" even though he hasn't.
What's happened is that the brain sent the message to Check, Check sends it to Memory for comparison, but Memory sends it to Short Term FIRST, and THEN does its check and says "woah, weird, yeah, there's already a memory file for this, but it's not in Long Term".
This happens because there are so many paths and roads through the brain that sometimes messages can take short-cuts, or split up and go two places at once. And that's when Deja Vu hits.
It's also worth pointing out that the opposite of Deja Vu is Jamais Vu. That's the feeling where you bend down, grab the two ends of your shoelace and then think "woah, what next? I've forgotten how to tie shoelaces".
In this situation, Check asks the Memory "do we know this situation?" Memory goes looking into Short Term and finds nothing, and then checks Long Term. It finds a space marked 'How To Tie Shoes' but before it can open the file and see what's inside, the Short Term sends the signal "No Memory". So Check receives two messages at the same time; we have a memory called 'How To Tie Shoes', but we've got No Memory.
I've worn a tie for 13 years. Last week I put one round my neck, put the fat end over the thin one, and then had a total brain freeze.
Jamais Vu!
Here's a very simplified process:
Your eyes see something, like your Mom making you a cup of coffee. That information goes to one part of the brain to check "do I recognise this". That checking part asks the memory "Hey, do we have a Cup-Of-Coffee memory today?"
Memory sends back "well, there's one in the Short Term memory right now, but we've already got boat load of Cup-Of-Coffee memories in Long Term. Do you want me to save another one there?" and the check one says "neh". So it sends a signal to your conciousness "this is usual, everything's fine, carry on". Our brains won't make a long-term memory of it, and after a few hours or at the end of the day, Short Term will just destroy the memory and it'll be gone.
But if this was something new and amazing; you see your first Ferrari, a nkaed person running down the street, or anything weird/new/unexperienced, you go through the same checks and the memory says "wow, that's new! Let me save a file of that!" The memory goes into Short Term, and at the end of the day it gets saved in Long Term.
With Deja Vu these processes get all mixed up. Your friend starts talking and you think "hey, you already told me about your dream of purple penguins" even though he hasn't.
What's happened is that the brain sent the message to Check, Check sends it to Memory for comparison, but Memory sends it to Short Term FIRST, and THEN does its check and says "woah, weird, yeah, there's already a memory file for this, but it's not in Long Term".
This happens because there are so many paths and roads through the brain that sometimes messages can take short-cuts, or split up and go two places at once. And that's when Deja Vu hits.
It's also worth pointing out that the opposite of Deja Vu is Jamais Vu. That's the feeling where you bend down, grab the two ends of your shoelace and then think "woah, what next? I've forgotten how to tie shoelaces".
In this situation, Check asks the Memory "do we know this situation?" Memory goes looking into Short Term and finds nothing, and then checks Long Term. It finds a space marked 'How To Tie Shoes' but before it can open the file and see what's inside, the Short Term sends the signal "No Memory". So Check receives two messages at the same time; we have a memory called 'How To Tie Shoes', but we've got No Memory.
I've worn a tie for 13 years. Last week I put one round my neck, put the fat end over the thin one, and then had a total brain freeze.
Jamais Vu!
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