scary shari asked:
My dad is in the early stages of dementia. Neither his doctors or us (his family) are sure which kind. It could be Alzheimer’s, or it could be a slow dying-off of brain cells due to hypoxemia. That term basically means lower-than-ideal levels of oxygen are reaching the brain, due to a reduced oxygen saturation of the blood, which in my dad’s case, is due to his very advanced COPD (emphysema & chronic bronchitis).
My dad is in the early stages of dementia. Neither his doctors or us (his family) are sure which kind. It could be Alzheimer’s, or it could be a slow dying-off of brain cells due to hypoxemia. That term basically means lower-than-ideal levels of oxygen are reaching the brain, due to a reduced oxygen saturation of the blood, which in my dad’s case, is due to his very advanced COPD (emphysema & chronic bronchitis).
At any rate, lately when we watch movie rentals, he comments that the movie looks extremely familiar (even when I *know* he’s never watched it before). Sometimes he even picks out specific scenes, where he marvels at how familiar all the people, places and actions of the scene are!
I did a tiny bit of online research and found one article (or study) that said something about damage to certain parts of the brain can lead to increased deja vu, but I’m not sure what I read. Can anyone shed some light on HOW and WHY certain forms of dementia could cause someone to have increased deja vu? (Also, do you think it will get worse?)
Thanks!!
I had just asked a question about jeja vu yesterday and read the wikipedia entry, which says that deja vu can be due to recalling dreams, that dreams are stored in long term memory, so when someone is having dimentia and losing thier short term memory, they still retain their long term memory, and if something they see reminds them of something they may have seen in their dream even if it was a long time ago, they might experience deja vu since their short term memory gets erased. Hope that makes sense!