London, Feb. 2: University researchers are conducting the world’s first study into d?j? vu ? the feeling that something one is experiencing has happened before.

They are seeking volunteers who are chronic sufferers of the condition, which takes its name from the French phrase for “already seen”. Psychologists from Leeds University are being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and will attempt to recreate d?j? vu in laboratory conditions.

The project coincides with “Groundhog Day” which was set as February 2 in the eponymous Hollywood film and is now commonly used as an alternative term for d?j? vu.

The anniversary is marked every February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, with the re-creation of a native American tradition claiming that if a groundhog comes out of hibernation and sees its shadow, it goes back for another six weeks.

Dr Chris Moulin first encountered chronic cases of d?j? vu five years ago. He had a “peculiar referral” from a man who told him there was no point visiting his clinic because he had already been there, although this was impossible. The man was so convinced he had met Dr Moulin before that he gave details of appointments, even though they had never met.

He believed he could hear the same bird singing in the same tree every time he went out and his d?j? vu had developed to the extent that he stopped watching television, even news programmes, thinking they were repeats. “But when his wife asked what was going to happen next on a programme he’d claimed to have already seen, he said: ‘How should I know? I have a memory problem’,” said Dr Moulin.The patient was found to be in the early stages of dementia and never recovered.