Deja vu (or there you fool)

Deja vu (as far as I have been able to investigate and incorporate existing research) is the moment the mind recognizes a pattern that has been (at some prior time) 'considered'. This means that the brain has a response structure for it and at the moment of deja vu, it fills in the blanks. That is why the consciousness feels everything that transpires is predicted. But this only goes for the very basic response to stimulus. 

We as humans are evolved from a long line of organisms that were (for a long time) not the top of the food chain. This means that as most other species, our primal driving emotion was fear. Fear of death. Our body is prepped to try and survive in any case of fear. Our brains is the evolved version of the brain of other primates. However, our line has had the luxury to gain so much overhead in responses, that we could counter possible threats, before they occurred. This means that our system has space and basal response blueprints (instincts) embedded that are not used anymore. These options made us, as species become self aware. The same options caused us to become 'religious' (seeking a parent outside, or generally called animism), plan extensive, become verbal in more complex ways and sometimes have Hotwired in the complex structure of neurons. Our brain is behaving primarily to respond to threats. As we don't have those in all levels of society anymore, there are levels where most of these parts of the brain are used for more cognitive options. However, the structures in which the brain is wired is inherited to extend. The decisions are caused by impulses coming in initially. As we come to a moment of deja vu, some arbitrary part of such a decision tree, is activated and the brain shoots hormones and other neurotoxins into the bloodstream to activate defenses of the organism. Such gives the organism a hastened response (heightened awareness) and the moment the brain sees something, the organism has the idea it has already transpired. We as humans are aware of direction of time and know that we can't act what has already transpired, so our consciousness tries to make the event fit and you get the 'idea' that it was a repetition of an earlier event (but as we KNOW we haven't been in that specific situation, we tell ourselves it must have been a dream).

Dreams

How do dreams fit into the decision tree model? 

If we take the model as base for the working of the conscious, based on feedback of the neural network in the brain, we can deduct what could cause images, sound and emotions to be received by the Claustrum, even (or as the model will explain: especially when) if the brain is highly inactive.

Cause of dreams

When the brain stops receiving impulses and stops processing signals through the network, the brain will still hold requests to the different parts of the network to give to the Claustrum and/or Prefrontal Cortex. This active residue, to my expectation, is result from the fact that activation of certain parts require a specific type and amount of energy. If the energy doesn't match the thresholds, it will cause 'cognitive dissonance', or emotional discomfort and feed back to the PC and Claustrum. Because the signals come from areas of the brain that process specific types of 'data', the return value will cause the Claustrum to build an 'consciousness' from that data. Because this data is not visual or auditive in nature, most of the time, it will be processed on emotional level. Causing them to activate memory segments, to receive an emotional feedback to adjust the neural network levels for the specific area.

A dream can be seen as a strong feedback signal from a brain segment, that causes the Claustrum (and by lucid dream to extend the Prefrontal Cortex as well) to present the subconscious with an emotional balance issue. The outcome will feed the energy back into the the brain segment that it was meant for and cause adjustment to it.

So, why do we see items and people in our dreams that we have never met before ? 

Because the mind will fill in 'the blanks' from memory, but the quality of the memory and how emotions change the visuals, can cause us to see things we never seen before. Remember, that during our life time we go through a tremendous period of magical thinking, where everything is possible.

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