Jamais Vu: what it is, and differences with Déjà Vu

This alteration of recognition and memory can occur independently of psychopathologies.

The brain is by far the most complex and mysterious organ in the human body. It is responsible for carrying out all the tasks essential for the development, perception and understanding of everything that surrounds the person.

However, sometimes this organ seems to work on its own, oblivious to the rest of the body, and creating a series of sensations and phenomena capable of misleading anyone. One of these phenomena is the little known jamais vu..

What is a Jamais Vu?

The term jamais vu comes from the French language and literally means "never seen". In psychology, the phenomenon of jamais vu refers to when a person experiences a sensation of not being able to recognize a place, a person, a situation or even a word. is not able to recognize a place, a person, a situation or even a word, even though others tell him/her otherwise or that it is rationally familiar to him/her.despite being told otherwise by others, or despite being rationally familiar with it.

This phenomenon is usually described as the opposite of dejà vu. However, in jamais vu the person has the impression of observing or hearing something for the first time.

However, the most common way in which a jamais vu phenomenon can be experienced is when someone is unable to recognize another person even though they are aware that their face is familiar.

It is also possible to fail to recognize a commonly used word. One way for the reader to test this is by writing or mentioning any word aloud repeatedly; after a few moments the reader will have the sensation that it has lost its meaning, even though he or she knows it is a real word.

This phenomenon, although difficult to study due to its infrequency and spontaneity, has been related numerous times to certain types of speech, has been related numerous times to certain types of aphasia, amnesia and epilepsy.of amnesia and epilepsy.

Some other experiences related to the jamais vu are the dejà vu, the presque vu or the sensation of having a word on the tip of the tongue, phenomena that are explained later in this article.

Doctor Moulin's experiment

In 2006, a psychologist of British origin named Chris Moulin presented an experimental process at a conference on memory. In this experiment, Dr. Moulin asked 92 people to write the word "door" more than 30 times in one minute.

Then, when he asked the participants about their experience, at least two thirds of them, i.e. about 60 people, said that the word "door" did not belong to the reality of a door, or even that it was an invented word.

Moulin's justification for these manifestations was that when a person looks at or perceives something in a sustained manner, and for a sufficiently long time, the mind experiences a kind of fatigue, the mind experiences a kind of fatigue that causes the stimulus to lose all meaning.

Its link with derealization

The sensation of derealization is an adulteration of the perception of that which surrounds us, so that the person perceives it as something unknown or unreal. Derealization is a dissociative symptom characteristic of several psychiatric illnesses.It can also be the result of stress, psychoactive substance use and lack of sleep.

People who have experienced this strange perception of the environment describe it as a kind of cloud or sensory fog that distances them from the situation they are perceiving.

The sensation of jamais vu falls within these experiences of derealization, in which both people, moments and spaces are perceived as moments and spaces are perceived as different or changed, but it cannot be but it is not possible to specify in what way or why.

These alterations in the perception can also be given in any of the other senses like the hearing, the taste or the smell.

Possible causes

From the field of the neurology it is tried to explain this phenomenon like an alteration in the coordination of the different cerebral zones in charge of the memory. and the management of information coming from the outside. This alteration would provoke a kind of lag between the neural networks, which would temporarily deform the understanding of the external environment.

Although the sensation of jamais vu can occur in isolation and without any associated pathology. without any associated pathologyAlthough the jamais vu sensation can occur in isolation and without any associated pathology, it is very common to register this phenomenon in people with neurological disorders such as epilepsy, chronic headaches or cranial injuries.

Like many other similar disorders, jamais vu may be caused by vestibular disorders, such as labyrinthitis or vestibular neuronitis, which interfere with the way the brain processes information.

Certain cannabinoid drugs, hallucinogenic drugs or even the nicotine itself present in tobacco can cause jamais vu effects. As well as lack of sleep, borderline personality disorders, anxious disorders or any mental condition that includes depersonalization.

Jamais Vu versus Déjà Vu

Another much better known phenomenon, and one that is in tune with jamais vu, is the sensation of dejà vu. The effect of dejà vu also comes from French speech and represents the "already seen". In this case, and contrary to jamais vu, the person refers to having already experienced what he/she is experiencing, or refers to knowing a person whom he/she has actually seen for the first time.

Sometimes, the sensation of déjà vu is so intense that the person firmly believes that he or she is able to predict what is going to happen in the next instant.

Synthesizing a little bit the two the two main differences between jamais vu and dejà vu are are:

• Dejà vu refers to "already seen" and jamais vu to "never seen".

• Dejà vu is a brain alteration that causes the sensation of having already experienced an event that is occurring at that precise moment, and jamais vu is an alteration in which the person claims not to have experienced or not to know situations or people that he or she should recognize.

Other related phenomena

There are other phenomena associated with alterations in the perception of the environment or with memory failures.

1. Presque vu

Although its literal translation is "almost seen", this phenomenon refers to the sensation of "having something on the tip of the tongue".

In this disorder, the person feels that he/she wants to remember something, that he/she is about to do so, but the memory never appears. The most common form is a kind of anomia in which the person knows the word, can remember having used it before, but is unable to name it.

2. Dejà senti

This phenomenon refers to the "already felt". In other words, the person experiences a sensation that is familiar but cannot be familiar to him/her but that he/she cannot link to any specific memory..