

Memory conflict-related brain regions that track deja vu reports
Memory conflict-related brain regions that track deja vu reports



[17/08/2016 UPDATE]:

A few other news organisations have since reported the story:

BBC World Service Newshour (interview, audio below)

Absolute Radio
 (interview, audio below: 42.55 – 48.02)

 (text, rejigged NS article)

New York Magazine (text, neat explanation of the paradigm)

[18/08/2016 UPDATE]:



Gizmodo (text, more hyperbole)

[19/08/2016 UPDATE]:


5 thoughts on “This is your brain on… déjà vu

  1. Error correcting codes (ECC) are an interesting and difficult topic. I was thinking about them in relation to the Hopfield network where the attractor states tend to be rather shallow. By adding in ECC you could improve that situation a lot. However I haven’t actually tried that in practice yet. Maybe sometime. What I did try however was replacing the simple computational neurons with decision tree neurons. That is a very interesting route to go. Worthwhile things happen when you do that.
    It would certainly be worth investigating in more detail. What is the decision tree equivalent of a biological neuron? Do small groups of biological neurons form decision trees systems with some kind of simple greedy learning algorithm?

  2. Dear Mr. O’Connor,

    this is just to let you know that the German edition of Motherboard—Vice’s tech and science magazine—will publish an article on your fascinating research today. I’m not sure how well you can read German, but I promise there is no unneccasary scary headline. We were fighting about who could write about it! Just a quick question: Could you grant us permission to use the picture on this site („Memory conflict-related brain regions that track deja vu reports) to illustrate our piece?

    You’ll find out article here:

    Have a great day.
    Best regards,

    Theresa Locker
    Editor @ Motherboard Germany

  3. Obviously the Barkhausen criterion is met in the human brain, otherwise people wouldn’t have brain waves. The other possible effect of positive feedback is hysteresis which could explain short-term memory. The brain is an analog system striving to be digital it seems.

  4. Hi Dr O’Connor,

    I’m writing an article on deja vu for Dose/OMGFacts and would like to ask you some questions via email. What’s the best way to reach you?

    Josh O’Connor


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