Deja vu is caused by a slight memory malfunction, whereby occassionally things you see are put straight into your long term memory instead of your short term memory where they are usually held for a bit before being moved to your long term memory. This results in you having an instant 'past memory' of the event occurring. (It could be a glitch in the Matrix of course
) It is common amongst young people whose neural pathways are still developing, but tends to be less common in adults.
Interestingly, my bf (yes, I have a bf!
) suffered head injuries in a road accident a few years ago and his memory doesn't work properly. He can remember stuff fine (in that there's no amnesia apart from the accident itself), but gets confused between stuff that happened just now and stuff that happened some time ago. He experiences a lot of deja vu as a result - a 'have I been here/done this before?' feeling as his experiences sometimes go straight into long term memory, so they seem like past events. Similarly, stuff that he did a while ago can suddenly pop into his short term memory, making him wonder if he just did them! It's not too bad, and he can usually figure out when it's happened, but it must be confusing. It's a fascinating insight into how memory works (although probably less fascinating than annoying for him).
EDIT to add: Ziroc, I LOVE my new avatar!!!
[ 08-28-2003, 05:57 AM: Message edited by: Epona ]