Explaining Deja Vu!
August 10th 2007 08:40
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Ever feel as if you've been here before when you know you haven't? It's a weird feeling isn't it? and so real.
Now scientists have come up with a possible explanation.
Researcher Thomas McHugh and several colleagues have uncovered a specific memory circuit in the brains of mice that is probably the cause of this weird sensation, which turns out to be a sort of memory-based analogue of an optical illusion.
Neuroscientists know memories are actually groups of brain cells linked by especially strong chemical connections; recalling a memory involves finding and activating a specific group.
Neuroscientists know memories are actually groups of brain cells linked by especially strong chemical connections; recalling a memory involves finding and activating a specific group.
The article becomes quite complex but the research involved removing a specific gene from experimental mice, thus embarking upon some genetic engineering.
Don't worry they are not thinking of doing this to us [well we hope not anyway] as it was just to test an hypothesis.
For those wanting a fuller explanation the link to the Time magazine article is included next to the title.
And it's not really concerned with controlling that sense of deja vu for most of us but obtaining a
fuller understanding of how the hippocampus works could lead to the creation of a drug that strengthens the pattern-recognition circuit, which could help people overcome fearful memories that are triggered by associations with a familiar-seeming place (like a dentist's office). Of course, if you strengthen the circuitry too much, you might get the opposite illusion: jamais vu, in which you get the eerie feeling that you've never been in a situation before even though you know otherwise.
Note: Deja vu is French for 'seen before' and jamais vu is French for 'never seen'
We wouldn't want that to happen to us, would we?
So it seems that eventually we will have explanations for where we are presently led by fanciful imaginings.
What do you think?
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