Sometimes, memories of the past sometimes simply pop into our minds, seemingly out of nowhere. On other occasions, we might experience a strong sense of feeling like we’ve been in a situation before, even though we know it's it’s impossible. The first phenomenon is called involuntary autobiographical memory, while the second is déjà vu. Most of us have experienced both at some point in our lives. Although they are striking everyday phenomena, these have puzzled researchers for years.

A new project, titled "SpontaneousPAST: Using déjà vu to better understand spontaneous retrieval in human memory," funded by the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (No: 101103345), aims to explore the connection between these two intriguing phenomena. Researchers Dr. hab Krystian Barzykowski and Prof. Chris Moulin from Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition - LPNC are investigating why, at times, we spontaneously recall memories, while at others, we experience déjà vu. Their work seeks to understand the underlying processes driving both experiences. The project is also aimed at creating a crosstalk between philosophy and psychology to better understand these quirks of daily life and unusual but meaningful phenomena.