Robert M Best wrote:
> DEJA VU
> by Robert M. Best
..
> The brain formation that recognizes new episodes and commits them to memory
> is the right hippocampus (HC).
That would be visual/spatial episodes. Linguisticly based episodes are normally
processed by the Left Hippocampus (95% of right handers and about 75% of left
handers). Since most episodes in life are a combination of linguistic and
nonlinguistic components, both hippocampi are usually involved.
snip of a decent summary of the neurology of memory
> By removing redundancy and compressing the input pattern to essential
> features, the DG discards information, just as compression of a digital
> picture in a JPG file discards information. Without details, sooner or
> later a new pattern will match a prior pattern based on only the essential
> features, but not match the details in the uncompressed memory. Since the
> details do not match, the prior memory does not become conscious, but the HC
> has already signaled that the pattern is a familiar one because the
> essential features do match. This is the deja vu feeling. We feel that a
> new situation has occurred before but cannot recall when or where.
my initial gut reaction is that this isn't quite what déjà-vu is about. It's
not experienced so much as a memory but a reliving. In any event, you are
getting at the underlying brain response to this phenomenon. All brain response
are electro/chemical. One can simply explain déjà-vu as an electrical blip that
shouldn't have happened. Simplistic yes.
If you were to do long term telemetry on people experiencing frequent déjà-vu
you would more likely than not find evidence of seizure activity. If you think
about it, it makes sense--most seizures will come from the mesial temporal
lobe--an area proximal to the hippocampi.
--
===============================================================
"I'll remind you that men never do evil so completely and
cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Put
another way, in general, bad people do evil things; good
people do good things. But, it takes religion to make a good
person do something really bad."
--Jill Tarter, member of SETI
http://members.mint.net/mdmpsyd
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