Déjà Vu Experiences in Healthy Czech Adults

Abstract

The study examines the prevalence of déjà vu in healthy Czech adults and explores its relationships with a number of variables: age, sex, neuroticism, depression, the degree of irritability in the limbic system, perceived stress, and finally attachment avoidance and anxiety. The participants were 365 healthy adults ranging from 18 to 70 years recruited in the Czech Republic (mean age = 29.05; SD = 11.17) who filled out online questionnaires. Déjà vu experiences were reported by 324 (88.8%) of them. Persons who experienced déjà vu were younger than the persons who had not experienced it. We found that sex, levels of neuroticism, depression, perceived stress, and attachment did not serve as predictors of experiences of déjà vu phenomena. Finally, those who had reported déjà vu experiences reported more limbic system irritability symptoms. We discuss the possibility that déjà vu reports together with other studied variables mainly reflect the participants' willingness to report "extraordinal" experiences.

Alexithymia, Depression, Trait-anxiety and Their Relation to Self-reported Retrospective Dream Experience

“…However, since studies reported no relations between déjà vu and negative affect [53], and no researches have been done, so far, on the relation between alexithymia and déjà vu, as suggested by Funkhouser and Schredl [54], additional research is highly desirable on déjà vu experiences, also via prospective measures, such as for example, diary keeping, and through studying whether the variables associated with déjà vu frequency also explain inter-individual differences in laboratory experiments.…”

Non-ictal, interictal and ictal déjà vu: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The prevalence of non-ictal déjà vu in healthy individuals, estimated by a random-effects model combining 10 studies ( 7 , 8 , 52 , 53 , 63 , 72 , 73 , 76 , 79 , 82 ), revealed a pooled proportion of 0.74 (95% CI [0.67, 0.79], p < 0.001; see Figure 2 for the forest plot). Considerable heterogeneity was observed among the study proportions ( I 2 = 96.14%, Q (df = 9) = 233.23, p < 0.001), suggesting inconsistency across the studies.…”

“… Funnel plot of non-ictal déjà vu prevalence in healthy individuals. This plot illustrates study-specific data points (numbered squares; 1 ( 52 ); 2 ( 53 ); 3 ( 63 ); 4 ( 72 ); 5 ( 73 ); 6 ( 7 ); 7 ( 76 ); 8 ( 8 ); 9 ( 79 ); 10 ( 82 )) alongside the pooled estimate from the random-effects (RE) model (dotted line) plotted against proportions on the x-axis and standard error on the y-axis. Proportions have been back-transformed from logit.…”

“…Non-ictal déjà vu correlated inversely with age (8,52,53,72,73), and was not associated with sex (52,53,72). The frequency of non-ictal déjà vu was reported weekly by 0.9%, a few times a month by 6.8%, a few times per year by 42.8%, or less than once per year by 22.5% (8).…”

“…The studies included healthy individuals and epilepsy patients that participated in interventions/ investigations (surveys, interviews, neuroimaging techniques, and performance-based neurocognitive assessments), providing phenomenological and neuroscientific outcomes (see Table 1 for details). The prevalence of non-ictal déjà vu in healthy individuals, estimated by a random-effects model combining 10 studies (7,8,52,53,63,72,73,76,79,82), revealed a pooled proportion of 0.74 (95% CI [0.67, 0.79], p < 0.001; see Figure 2 for the forest plot). Considerable heterogeneity was observed among the study proportions (I 2 = 96.14%, Q (df = 9) = 233.23, p < 0.001), suggesting inconsistency across the studies.…”