In psychology, jamais vu, 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. 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. 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"). It is generally a rare phenomenon.

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.

Causes

Jamais vu can be caused by epileptic seizures.

Related phenomena