Deja vu

We are conducting a survey on how many people know about deja vu, and of they have experenced it. We examine articles and ask questions and attempt to answer them with the survey results and the little infomation on the internet
Emma Lalani Manasvi Gainda
Grade 8

Presentation

No video provided

Problem

 

Our problem, or question, is what is deja vu, what causes it, and how does it effect our long and short term memory.   We will conduct a survey to ask our participants questions abou their knowlage of deja-vu, and if they have experenced it.   In Addition to our question, we have other questions to help us dive deeper, and understand the complex idea of deja vu. 

Our guiding questions are: 

  1. Do people with a more active physical life experience deja-vu? (Does physical health impact if you experience deja-vu?)
  2. To experience deja-vu do you have to be in a certain age range?
  3. Does everyone feel deja vu at least once?
  4. How many people know about Deja vu, and when to seek help.
  5. How does how you view deja vu impact the effects on your brain? (Do you get it more, less, the same. Does your mindset or experiences change anything?)

These questions will branch out into how our brain works with memory, including trama responses, triggering memories/things, how we respond to stress, pressure, panic-prone moments, and how diffrent parts of our brain comunicate to each other. 

 

Method

Method

Since our science project in not experemental, as forcing someone to feel deja vu is impossible, we will do research on multiple different articles to fact-check the infomation we are receving.  We will conduct an anyonamus survey, with 11-13 year old teens answering questions. There will be two sections or parts to the survey. One part will be for the students, who study daily, and do not exersise often, apart from P.E class. The other part will be for students who go to a soccer paractise 3 times a week, for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, and a hour fitness cardio workout, and a 90 minute soccer game per week. The purpose of this is to see if physical activity affects if you experence deja vu or not. Soccer also involves fast paced plays, and memorizing certian skills and plays. Soccer is a sressful game, and we thought it would help us further understand deja vu. Our project all together consists of reaserch and real-life experenced mixed together to spread awareness and knowlage about deja vu. 

Research

Deja vu is the sensation that you have done or witnessed something before, even if you have not experienced it.

Being busy, tired or stressed may result in deja vu

One theory of deja vu is that it is a memory glitch or memory confusion. 

When you are tired, your brain is exhausted, it’s like running a kilometer, your legs will tire, and make it harder to walk, maybe your knees lock or shake. That’s what your brain is doing, or at least what we think it’s doing

No scientists truly know what deja vu is, as we are still exploring what it really is. There are many theories, from brain glitch, memory confusion, to curses on one's brain. 

Many scientists speculate that people between the ages of 15-25 feel deja vu the most since many surveys report this information.

Deja vu can be a sign if seizure disorders, migraine, and memory disorders

The most common cause of deja vu is stress and exhaustion. For example, if you are working extremely hard on your job, or a school project, your brain is going to get tired, and most likely make you feel deja vu, since your brain will mix up signals. 

People with schizophrenia often say that they experience deja vu, but in a more frightening way. This is not deja vu, and feeling deja vu does not mean that you have a mental illness.

Having anxiety at high levels constantly can also cause deja vu, and anxiety is often caused by stress. Using this information, we can assume that Deja vu is most commonly caused by built up stress, or severe stress. 

There are also many different cultural views on deja vu, for example in Ancient Greece deja vu was seen as a premonition or prophecy. Philosophers belived that the sensations of deja vu, were glimpes of things that were going to happen in the future.

In Eastern cultures, mostly in Hinduism and Buddhism deja vu is viewed as evidence of past lives. The sensation is believed to be memorizes, seeping into present consciousness.

There are actually different forms of deja vu. Deja vu is the most common one, where you feel as if your encountering a moment you have experienced before.

 Though there is also deja vecu( meaning already lived), the feeling is way stronger than in deja vu and you feel like you know all the events that are about to happen.  Deja vecu feels more troubling and it's a stronger, more intense feeling then deja vu. 

Deja vu can also appear while you're dreaming, where you feel as if you have seen the same dream before. While dreaming, it feels like more fascination and familiarity is being added.

This is actually another form of deja vu, which is called deja-reve (already dreamed in French). Not many studies have been done on this form of deja vu. 

Deja-vu means already seen in french

There are more than 40 theories about deja vu. 

It is especially hard to study because it is a brief feeling, and usually goes unnoticed to some individuals, however, recent advancements in technology have made research about deja vu clearer.

One theory (out of the most commonly known and reasonable 3) is that your brain records a moment, like movies. It flashed through information in a single moment, but sometimes, a sense (touch,smell,hear,taste,see) lags behind, and your brain records it as a separate event, usually one similar to the past, which makes the famous feeling of deja vu. 

The second theory is as follows: You scan, say a checkered tablecloth, and your brain’s memories, (In the shape of a hologram) instantly makes the connection to another memory, of the same or very similar tablecloth, without the context from the older memory. It is essentially your brain mixing a small part of a past memory with a small part of the present to create a sense of familiarity. 

The third and possibly the simplest theory is this: You are paying attention to a specific object, such as a TV remote in your brand new hotel that you’ve never been to. Your focus is on the remote, while your brain is scanning the remote, it is also trying to remember everything outside of your focus, which would be, in this case, the rest of your room. Once you look around, it will seem familiar, since you were there, in a memory (of about 30 seconds ago in this example. It can be any length of time) just not paying attention. 

However, these 3 theories may not be completely accurate, since as noted above, deja vu is a quick feeling and reaction, and is extremely hard to capture! As technology progresses, scientists are hopeful to find an answer to what deja vu is.  

Basically a glitch in your brain when you are tired or stressed. 

A repeat firing while the brain tries to connect the glitched memory to another experience.

The sequence in your brain was close enough to the memory so it feels like you have experienced it before. 

Cannot be on purpose, you can’t walk down the same street everyday and feel deja vu because you've been there before.  

Despite reports about deja vu, scientists still do not understand the meaning behind it, or the cause of deja vu. 

If deja vu occurs several times per week, consult a doctor, as this may be a sign of an issue in your brain. As said above, your mental wellness affects how many times you get deja vu. If your mental health is poor, and you are stressed a lot, the chances of feeling deja vu go up. 

Gender does not affect how to experience, feel or the number of times you have gotten it in any shape of form. 

When you see something it is put into short term memory, but with deja-vu, your brain makes a mistake and connects it with a blurry short term memory, and therefore creates the sensation of deja-vu

Not everyone experiences deja-vu within the first 13-15 years of their life. As you grow and the more responsibility you carry and stress you gain, the more likely you are to feel deja-vu.

Anxiety disorders, or depression can lead to feeling deja vu. 

People with Anxiety disorders tend to feel deja vu more often, as the high stress of anxiety tires their brain. Those with depression tend to ignore small details, and one of the theories about deja vu states that deja vu happens when we feel something familiar. 

 Even if your mental health is good, you can still get extreme cases of deja vu.

If you constantly feel deja-vu (Maybe 2-3 times a day or week) you should consult a doctor or medical professional. 

Some things that cause stress are; school, burnout, work, and so much more. 

Stress can make your brain fatigued. 

On the spiritual side of viewing deja vu.

Before proper research was made, humans used to believe that it was a connection from your past life (If you believed in reincarnation.) A similar scenario happened in your previous life, so there's a quick feeling of deja vu as the moment confuses your brain. 

Another theory before research was made is that you are connecting with another dimension. 

 People in different dimensions have a flash of deja vu as the world’s collide briefly as the same scenario is mirroring the others. 

It is important to note that some individuals still believe in these theories  and they  are mentioned as older theories because the belief (Put theories here) was much more popular with people who were alive a century or two ago than now, since we have more information on it.   

Many people misunderstand mental health problems and diagnose mental health problems. For example, schizophrenia is widely misunderstood. The difference between experiencing deja-vu and having PTSD or visions (From Schizophrenia) is not known by many people.  

  1. Do people with a more active physical life experience deja-vu? (Does physical health impact if you experience deja-vu?)

During our survey, there were slight differences, such as how many times a person has experienced deja vu. In average, the people who we interviewed with high physical health did  experience deja vu more than other people we have interviewed. This could be due to the stress that comes with playing a high-level sport. It is important to note that these athletes play at a provicial league, and most wish to become professional soccer players, which place a lot of pressure and stress on a 13 year old's mind. Another reason could be due to the constant scanning of the feild. In soccer, it is nessasary to scan the feild and memorise where specific players are. This places the hippocampus in a stressful situation, as it is in charge of memories, and can get tired easliy, and  can relult in deja vu. This might not always be the case, since diffrent people's brains react in diffrent ways. Due to this, we concluded that our surveys could have had the potential to have diffrent results asuming that we interviewed diffent people. 

         2. To experience deja-vu do you have to be in a certain age range?

Most people start remembering things at age 5-7, depending on your brain. This will make it so you can experence deja vu, or have a higher chance to get deja vu. The most common ages are from 10 to 15, where the brain is growing rapidly and has more of a chance for making a mistake. 

         3. Does everyone feel deja vu at least once?

No everyone gets deja vu, many 13 year-olds have not even heard of deja vu. It's possible that your brain will never glich in a way that makes you feel deja vu. It's completly fine if you don't feel deja vu, and there are no consequences to feeling deja vu either!

          4.How many people know about Deja vu, and when to seek help.

Deja vu is the feeling that you have been somewhere, or have already done somthing, even if you have not.                                                                                Deja vu is triggered by familiar scenes that were processed while you were distracted, or tired. It is important to note that PTSD or any kind of traumatic flashbacks or schizophrenia is not the same as deja vu. Deja vu can be triggered by anything, and does not have any side effects to your brain. In some rare cases of frequent deja vu (such as 5-6 times a day) it is important to see a doctor especially of you feel tired all the time, or having a increased heart rate. It could be a symptom of epilepsy. To conclude, deja vu is usually not a bad thing, unless you have the symptoms above.    

            5. How does how you view deja vu impact the effects on your brain? (Do you get it more, less, the same. Does your mindset or experiences change anything?) 

No, deja vu if just a glitch, and how you view it could make you panic, or feel emotions (such as happy or suprised [Oh, I'm connecting with another universe!]) but your viewon deja vu does not really effect on if you get it or not, since deja vu is not a forced feeling.  As much as it would progress reaserch about deja vu, deja vu is not a forced emotion. 

 

 

Data

 

Data Analysis

During our survey, we came up with these results: 

 
We interviewed  8 people from Annie Gale School, and 8 people from our athletic team. 
 
 
Annie Gale students
 
7/8 people knew what deja vu was, and were able define deja vu for us.
3/8 people had actully experenced it. 
1/8 people had gotten it over 5 times in their life. 
 
Athletic team 
 
8/8 people knew what deja vu was, and were able to describe the feeling, not the definition. 
8/8 people experenced deja vu.
5/8 have experenced it over 5 times in their life. 
 
 
We can see that the athletic people were able to define deja vu correctly, and every person had experenced it before, each player had their unique experenced with deja vu. 
The students had slightly less people who knew about deja vu (which we then informed them the definition so they would be able to recall if they had experenced it and did not know.), and most people only knew the definition and the meaning, not any other infomation, such as what it is, or why it happens. 
The our conclusion is that our soccer players felt deja vu more due to the stress of the game they undergo. Many of our players wish to bemcme professional players, which place a huge burden of their backs, causing any amount of stress. Soccer is a fast paced game, and requires a reset of memory evey few seconds to keep track of where players are on the field. 
 
 
 

Conclusion

Conclusion

To conclude, our hypothesis on what deja vu is, and how it affects others was correct. We conducted surveys to prove our hypothesis as correct, and asked science teachers to elaborate for more information. Articles helped us understand details of theories and the concept of deja vu. Deja vu is a false sense of reality, or a mistake that your brain has made on short and long term memory. We hypothesized that kids our age(12-13) would not experience deja vu as much as a adult would. We were correct, and our survey reflected these results. We also have determined based on our survey that people who tend to be more active do not experience deja vu more or less than anyone else.All in all, our hypothesis was correct, and we succeeded in spreading information and awareness about deja vu.

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge our teachers for the support they gave us during our project. They solved technical problems and gave us ideas and websites for us to use. Secondly, our parents for willingly driving us places, buying supplies and the long nights where they stayed awake to help us achieve our goals in this project. Lastly, our friends who completed our survey for us. This helped us in multiple ways, such as making theories about deja vu, and trying to solve them, even the answers were unknown. It helped us so much that they were so enthusiactic about helping us. Thank you for your time, everyone, and thank you for being here for us!