This post is also available in Dutch.
Have you ever come up with a brilliant idea, only to have someone point out it’s oddly similar to something that came out years ago? This phenomenon, known as cryptomnesia, is surprisingly common and can catch anyone—artists, writers, and even scientists—off guard. Cryptomnesia can happen when you recall information from the past but fail to recognize it as a memory, leading you to believe it’s a novel idea.
Sounds familiar: Cryptomnesia in music
In music, melodies, beats, riffs, and even whole lyrics are constantly resampled or remixed. This type of reuse is usually intentional and giving credit to the original artist is expected. But in some cases, the creator is unaware they are recycling existing material.
In 2014, Sam Smith released the hit ballad “Stay With Me,” only for listeners to point out its similarity to “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty. Smith’s team insisted that the resemblance was unintentional, but the similarities were undeniable. As a result, Petty and his co-writer, Jeff Lynne, were later credited as co-writers. Smith likely experienced cryptomnesia: They might have heard Petty’s song at some point, and, when crafting a new song, retrieved the experience. The brain likely failed to recognize it as a memory and presented it as an original idea – something that is difficult to prove to the copyright courts.
The psychology behind cryptomnesia
Cryptomnesia stems from faulty source monitoring—the brain’s ability to identify the origin of a memory. When we retrieve a memory, the brain doesn’t just access the content but also tries to recall where the information came from. This is tied to reality monitoring, which helps distinguish between memories of actual events and internally generated thoughts. Failures in these systems can lead to misattributed memories, such as believing someone else’s idea is your own or experiencing déjà vu.
Cryptomnesia differs from déjà vu, where you feel as though a completely novel experience is eerily familiar. In cryptomnesia, it’s the opposite: something old feels new because you forgot its origin. Yet, both show how our memory can trick us.
How your brain tricks you
So cryptomnesia occurs when something goes wrong in memory recall, but what happens in the brain to cause this? The key brain regions involved in monitoring our reality consist of the prefrontal cortex (evaluates contextual details), the medial temporal lobes including the hippocampus (responsible for encoding and retrieving memory details), and the parietal cortex (integrates sensory information). When this network is disrupted, memories can lack contextual cues, which in turn can lead to misattributions of where a memory comes from. Studies show that these kinds of source misattributions are especially common when the brain is very busy making individuals more susceptible to memory errors.
Cases of cryptomnesia illustrate how our brains walk the fine line between inspiration and imitation. Whether you’re writing, composing, or brainstorming, it’s easy to unknowingly retrieve existing ideas and believe they’re your own. Understanding the concept of cryptomnesia can give us a deeper appreciation for how memory works—and maybe cut ourselves some slack when our brains play tricks on us.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko via pexel
Credits
Author: Helena Olraun
Buddy: Xuanwei Li
Editor: Charlotte Sachs
Translation: Lucas Geelen
Editor translation: Hilde Althof
