What can explain that eerie, unsettling feeling we sometimes get that we've experienced a new situation once before? It might just be the weirdest experience you'll ever have sober, but what exactly is deja vu? One thing it definitely is - is common. Two thirds of us have had it, with younger people, globetrotters and film fans likely to get it more frequently.
我们有时会有一种阴森恐怖、令人不安的感觉，觉得自己以前经历过某种新情况，这是怎么回事呢？这可能是你清醒时最奇怪的经历，但到底什么是“似曾相识”呢？有一点是肯定的，那就是它很常见。我们当中有三分之二的人都有过这种感觉，而年轻人、环球旅行者和电影迷可能会更频繁地出现这种感觉。
Because of its inherent weirdness, deja vu was long thought of alongside paranormal events like clairvoyance and reincarnation. In fact, it was parapsychologist Émile Boirac who first named the feeling in the 1870s, using the French for ‘already seen’. The focus on the uncanny has persisted, and in films like The Matrix, deja vu is a glitch in the computer simulation.
由于其固有的怪异性，“似曾相识”长期以来一直被认为是与千里眼和转世等超自然现象并存的现象。事实上，早在 19 世纪 70 年代，超心理学家埃米尔·博伊拉克就用法文“已见过”一词首次为这种感觉命名。 对这离奇现象的关注一直存在，在《黑客帝国》等电影中，“似曾相识”来自电脑模拟中的一个小故障。
So what’s actually going on? The truth is, no one is 100% sure, but psychologists have suggested dozens of possibilities combining theories of memory, perception and cognition. One is ‘divided perception’. Maybe our brains process a situation in a quick and shallow way before we become fully aware of it, and then we get a jolt of having seen it before. Another is ‘dual processing’. Incoming signals enter the temporal lobe from both hemispheres of the brain, one a millisecond later than the other. And it’s in this moment of delay that deja vu occurs. Others speculate that errors around the hippocampus, the ‘brain’s librarian’, are to blame.
那么究竟是怎么回事呢？事实上，没有人百分之百确定，但心理学家结合记忆、感知和认知理论，提出了几十种可能性。一种是“分裂感知”。也许我们的大脑在完全意识到某种情况之前，会以一种快速而浅显的方式对其进行处理，然后我们就会猛然意识到自己曾经见过这种情况。另一种是“双重处理”。输入信号从大脑的两个半球进入颞叶，其中一个比另一个晚一毫秒。就在这一延迟时刻，似曾相识的感觉出现了。还有人推测这是“大脑图书管理员”海马体周围的错误造成的。
The problem with studying deja vu is that neurologists can’t very well wait around for it to happen. One solution has been to look at people with temporal lobe damage. Many find that they get chronic deja vu. Another way to study deja vu is to induce it under lab conditions. In 2012, one study used virtual reality to immerse people in different 3D environments, some of which were very similar in layout. For instance, a doctor’s waiting room and an aquarium, with furniture arranged in the same configuration. People were more likely to report deja vu when they encountered environments that had a similar layout to previous, forgotten scenes - suggesting it’s a memory phenomenon.
研究“似曾相识”现象的问题在于，神经病学家不能坐等它发生。一种解决办法是观察颞叶受损的人。许多人发现他们会长期出现“似曾相识”的感觉。另一种研究“似曾相识”的方法是在实验室条件下进行诱导。2012年，一项研究利用虚拟现实技术让人们沉浸在不同的三维环境中，其中一些环境的布局非常相似。例如，一个医生的候诊室和一个水族馆，里面的家具摆放都是一样的。当人们遇到与之前被遗忘的场景布局相似的环境时，更容易产生“似曾相识”的感觉——这表明这是一种记忆现象。
A 2014 study had very different results. Those who took part were shown a series of words with a secret common theme - words like ‘bed’, ‘pillow’, ‘nap’, ‘dream’. The linking word - ‘sleep’ - never appeared. Viewers were asked to keep note of any words beginning with S. Those who took part were later asked if any words began with S, and sure enough they said no. But many also felt that they had been shown the word ‘sleep’. For two thirds of people, this confusion was tantamount to deja vu.
2014年的一项研究得出了截然不同的结果。研究人员向参与者展示了一系列具有秘密共同主题的单词，如 “床”、“枕头”、“午睡”、“梦 ”等。而关联词 “睡眠sleep ”却从未出现过。观看者被要求记下任何以 S开头的单词。后来，观看者被问及是否有以 S开头的单词，他们果然说没有。但许多人也认为他们看到了 “睡眠sleep”这个词。对三分之二的人来说，这种混淆就相当于是“似曾相识”的感觉。
Neurologists have used this method to scan the brain during deja vu. They found that rather than being a memory error in the hippocampus, deja vu involved the frontal areas of the brain, responsible for decision-making. This led some to suggest that deja vu is a sign your brain’s memory-checking mechanisms are actually working well. But if you’re looking for something a bit more ‘out there’ to explain deja vu, try ‘quantum entanglement’. Perhaps, through the mysterious affinity of subatomic particles, deja vu might actually be a window into a parallel universe, or else a blip in time.
神经学家已经用这种方法来扫描产生“似曾相识”感觉时的大脑。他们发现，“似曾相识”并不是海马区的记忆错误，而是与负责决策的大脑额叶区有关。这导致一些人认为，“似曾相识”是大脑记忆检查机制运行良好的标志。但如果你想找点更“极端”的方式来解释“似曾相识”，不妨试试“量子纠缠”。也许，通过亚原子粒子之间神秘的亲和力，似曾相识的感觉实际上可能是进入平行宇宙的一扇窗户，或者是时间的一个小插曲。
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