Researchers reconsider deja vu

LEEDS, England, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- British scientists say they have determined, in the first case study of its kind, that a blind person can experience deja vu.

Traditionally it was thought images from one eye were delayed, arriving in the brain microseconds after images from the other eye -- causing a sensation that something was being seen for the second time.

But University of Leeds researchers Akira O'Conner and Chris Moulin have found a blind person can experience deja vu through smell, hearing and touch.

O'Connor and Moulin say mundane experiences -- undoing a jacket zip while hearing a particular piece of music or hearing a snatch of conversation while holding a plate in the school dining hall -- are examples of how deja experiences were triggered in a blind subject.

"It is the first time this has been reported in scientific literature," O'Connor said. "It's useful because it provides a concrete case study, which contradicts the theory of optical pathway delay. Eventually we would like to talk to more blind people, though there's no reason to believe this man's experiences are abnormal or different to those of others."

The research appears in the journal Brain and Cognition.