Jamais vu

In psychology, jamais vu (/ˌʒæmeɪ ˈvuː/ ZHAM-ay VOO, US: /ˌʒɑːm-/ ZHAHM-, French: [ʒamɛ vy]), a French loanword meaning "never seen", is the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes in some fashion, but that nonetheless seems novel and unfamiliar.

Overview

Jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer’s impression of experiencing something for the first time, despite rationally knowing that they have experienced it before.^[1]

Jamais vu is commonly explained as when a person momentarily does not recognize a word or, less commonly, a person or place, that they already know.^[2] Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of aphasia, amnesia, and epilepsy.

The phenomenon is often grouped with déjà vu and presque vu (tip of the tongue, literally "almost seen").^[3] It is generally a rare phenomenon.^[4]

Experiment

A study by Chris Moulin of Leeds University asked 92 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. In July 2006 at the 4th International Conference on Memory in Sydney he reported that 68 percent of volunteers showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word. Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies some symptoms of schizophrenia and Capgras delusion. Moulin suggests that people with these conditions could be suffering from chronic jamais vu.^[2]

Causes

Jamais vu can be caused by epileptic seizures.^[5]^[1]

Related phenomena

Déjà vu: having the strong sensation that an event or experience being experienced, has already been experienced in the past, whether it has actually happened or not. In French, this means 'already seen'.
Tip of the tongue: almost, but not quite, remembering something.

References

^ ^a ^b Larner, A. J. (12 November 2010). A Dictionary of Neurological Signs. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-4419-7095-4.
^ ^a ^b "Health & Medical News – Is it really you or jamais vu?". ABC.net.au. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
^ Blom, Jan Dirk (8 December 2009). A Dictionary of Hallucinations. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4419-1223-7.
^ Brown, Alan S.; Marsh, Elizabeth J. (1 January 2010), Ross, Brian H. (ed.), "Chapter 2 - Digging into Déjà Vu: Recent Research on Possible Mechanisms", Psychology of Learning and Motivation, The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory, vol. 53, Academic Press, pp. 33–62, doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(10)53002-0, retrieved 29 January 2024
^ "Epilepsy and seizure information for patients and health professionals – Simple Partial Seizures", retrieved 2011-09-08

Sno, Herman N. (2000). "Déjà vu and jamais vu". In Berrios, German E.; Hodges, John R. (eds.). Memory Disorders in Psychiatric Practice. Cambridge University Press. pp. 338–347. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511530197.016. ISBN 978-0-521-57671-0.
Cheng, Lionel Tim-Ee; Chan, Lai Peng; Tan, Ban Hock; Chen, Robert Chun; Tay, Kiang Hiong; Ling, Moi Lin; Tan, Bien Soo (June 2020). "Déjà Vu or Jamais Vu? How the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Experience Influenced a Singapore Radiology Department's Response to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic". American Journal of Roentgenology. 214 (6): 1206–1210. doi:10.2214/AJR.20.22927. PMID 32130047. S2CID 212417312.
Burwell, Rebecca D; Templer, Victoria L (September 2017). "Jamais vu all over again". Nature Neuroscience. 20 (9): 1194–1196. doi:10.1038/nn.4625. PMC 6101242. PMID 28849788.
Moulin, Chris J. A.; Bell, Nicole; Turunen, Merita; Baharin, Arina; O’Connor, Akira R. (9 August 2021). "The the the the induction of jamais vu in the laboratory: word alienation and semantic satiation". Memory. 29 (7): 933–942. doi:10.1080/09658211.2020.1727519. hdl:10023/21466. PMID 32079491. S2CID 211231684.
"Jamais Vu". The Deja Vu Experience. 2004. pp. 115–124. doi:10.4324/9780203485446-13. ISBN 978-0-203-48544-6.
Struck, Terry H. (June 2002). "Jamais vu episodes in relationship to baclofen treatment: A case report". Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 83 (6): 846–849. doi:10.1053/apmr.2002.32828. PMID 12048665.
Marcial, Dennis (9 September 2016). "Jamais Vu". The Quiet Corner Interdisciplinary Journal. 1 (2).
Ullian, John A.; Matson, Christine C. (March 2001). "The 'Jamais-vu Phenomenon' in Medical Education". Academic Medicine. 76 (3): 217. doi:10.1097/00001888-200103000-00004. PMID 11242567.

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[:1-1] Larner, A. J. (12 November 2010). A Dictionary of Neurological Signs. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-4419-7095-4.

[study-2] "Health & Medical News – Is it really you or jamais vu?". ABC.net.au. Retrieved 2 June 2015.

[3] Blom, Jan Dirk (8 December 2009). A Dictionary of Hallucinations. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4419-1223-7.

[:0-4] Brown, Alan S.; Marsh, Elizabeth J. (1 January 2010), Ross, Brian H. (ed.), "Chapter 2 - Digging into Déjà Vu: Recent Research on Possible Mechanisms", Psychology of Learning and Motivation, The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory, vol. 53, Academic Press, pp. 33–62, doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(10)53002-0, retrieved 29 January 2024

[5] "Epilepsy and seizure information for patients and health professionals – Simple Partial Seizures", retrieved 2011-09-08

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