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Deja Vu

Is deja vu a brain glitch, something triggered by the broader environment or a more mystical phenomenon? Bridget Kendall talks to Chris Moulin, Anne Cleary and Chigozie Obioma.

Is d茅j脿 vu a brain glitch, something triggered by the broader environment or a more mystical phenomenon? Bridget Kendall talks to cognitive neuropsychologist Chris Moulin, cognitive psychologist Anne Cleary and Nigerian born novelist and academic Chigozie Obioma, who was recently shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

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28 minutes

Last on

Sat 3 Oct 2015 11:00

Chris Moulin

Dr Chris Moulin is a cognitive neuropsychologist at the Universit茅 de Bourgogne, Dijon, France. He researches the science of d茅j脿 vu.

"D茅j脿 vu is a fault in a kind of cognitive process that is going on in the background all the time. When it goes wrong, it's very striking," says Moulin. 鈥淎t the extreme, patients with permanent d茅j脿 vu - dubbed d茅j脿 v茅cu, for already experienced - actually make up stories to make sense of it鈥.

He believes that d茅j脿 vu is caused not by genuine memories but erroneous activity in the brain.聽

Anne Cleary

Anne Cleary is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Colorado State University.聽

Anne think that d茅j脿 vu has environmental influences- that is, other causes outside the brain itself and that genuine not false memories and familiarity play a big part in its makeup.聽

Chigozie Obioma

Chigozie Obioma was born in Nigeria. He now lives in the United States where he is a Fiction Fellow at the University of Michigan.

His novel 鈥楾he Fisherman鈥 is told from the point of view of nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers. The book is the Cain and Abel-esque story of a childhood in 1990s Nigeria and deals with themes of familiarity, repetition and memory.

Chigozie is interested in deja vu both as a writer and from the perspective of his Nigerian heritage.

Broadcast

  • Sat 3 Oct 2015 11:00