Deja vu can be a symptom of a temporal lobe seizure.

Is it true that deja vu can be a symptom of a temporal lobe seizure?

Partly. One peer-reviewed paper reports that some temporal-lobe epilepsy patients consistently experience deja vu at seizure onset, and another notes deja vu may accompany seizures in brain-tumor patients. However, a study found deja vu was actually less frequent in TLE patients than controls, and another paper distinguishes prescience from deja vu in TLE, so the evidence only partially supports the claim and partly cuts against it.

Verdict: CONTESTED PARTIAL · 3 sources for, 2 against · Last checked 3 Oct 2026

The private library was unavailable for some searches in this check. Missing library results are not evidence against the claim.

Temporal lobe. (n.d.). en.wikipedia.org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_lobe

Prescience as an Aura of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. (n.d.). cir.nii.ac.jp. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0013-9580.2004.68603.x

B., M. C., M., M. S., C., P. J., Sandra, P., G., B. J., & Brent, H. (2012). Deja Vu in Unilateral Temporal-Lobe Epilepsy Is Associated with Selective Familiarity Impairments on Experimental Tasks of Recognition Memory. eric.ed.gov. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.07.030

Vlasov, P. N., Chervyakov, A. V., Urakov, S. V., & Solokha, A. A. (2009). DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF THE DEJA VU PHENOMENON IN THE CLINICAL PICTURE OF GLIAL BRAIN TUMORS. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.14412/2074-2711-2009-53

Déjà Experiences in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy - PMC Lock. (n.d.). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/539567