Déjà vu

Biological Parallel

Pattern matching systems occasionally misfire when current input closely resembles stored patterns—the brain signals 'familiar' before completing the match-verification process. Déjà vu is premature familiarity signaling: the recognition system activates on partial matches, creating the eerie sensation of having experienced something you're actually encountering for the first time. This is prediction machinery revealing itself: the brain constantly guesses 'what comes next' and sometimes guesses wrong about whether it's seen 'this' before.