HAVE you read this before? A 23-year-old man from the UK almost certainly feels like he has 鈥� he鈥檚 the first person to report persistent d茅j脿 vu stemming from anxiety rather than any obvious neurological disorder.
聯It鈥檚 a vicious cycle: anxiety causes his neurons to misfire, which triggers d茅j脿 vu, which leads to anxiety聰
Nobody knows exactly how or why d茅j脿 vu happens, but for most of us it is rare. Some people experience it more often, as a side effect associated with epileptic seizures or dementia.
Advertisement
Now, researchers have discovered the first person with what they call 鈥減sychogenic d茅j脿 vu鈥� 鈥� where the cause appears to be psychological. The man鈥檚 episodes began just after he started university, a period when he felt anxious and was also experiencing obsessive compulsions. As time went on, his d茅j脿 vu became more and more prolonged, and then fairly continuous after he tried LSD. Now, he avoids television and radio, and finds newspapers distressing as the content feels familiar.
There are different theories as to what is going on, says at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, who has written a paper on the man鈥檚 experiences. 鈥淭he general theory is that there鈥檚 a misfiring of neurons in the temporal lobes 鈥� which deal with recollection and familiarity. That misfiring during the process of recollection means we interpret a moment in time as something that has already been experienced,鈥� she says.
Surprisingly, when Wells gave the man a standard recall test, he scored more similarly to people of his own age without the condition than those with epilepsy-related d茅j脿 vu. An MRI and an EEG scan of his brain activity also showed no abnormalities.
It may be that his anxiety is causing a misfiring in the brain, which causes the d茅j脿 vu and in turn causes him more anxiety. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a vicious circle,鈥� says Wells, who is investigating other cases of anxiety to see if anyone else has reported something similar (Journal of Medical Case Studies, ).
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淥h no, it鈥檚 d茅j脿 vu all over again 鈥� and again鈥�
