I've been driving truck for sugar beet harvest the last two weeks. 12 hours a day for 13 day straight, so far, and I have shifted gears and watched the same scenes go by so many times I'm so zombified by it now that if I even start to think about where I am at and how to drive I forget how to do it.

I had to check my oil before shift change and I couldn't even remember what side of the engine the dipstick was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamais_vu

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. Dr Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies a phenomenon observed in some schizophrenia patients: that a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor.

 

Dr Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies a phenomenon observed in some schizophrenia patients: that a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor.

That would be it. Brain Fatigue. Our brains can only run in high concentration mode for so long before they get tired just like a muscle does.

After that semi-subconscious autopilot mode starts to take over until the active mind is almost completely out of the physical actions and functions picture and when it does pop into see what's going on everything seem strangely wrong or unfamiliar despite literally having been watched and down hundreds or even thousands of times in a row.

Its one of the leading causes of accidents and general mishaps in highly repetitive long work schedule jobs or activities that originate from someone having missed what should be a obvious and simple action or observation and correctly reacting to it but not. 'High functioning Zombiism'

 

It could be your just more oriented to grid type rather than looking for something familiar since your Male, Females will try to locate landmarks to identify rather than following Co-ordinates. It's how men are hardwired, much in the same way we tend to hard focus on something and typically but not all men but can't use both hemispheres of the brain.

It's said Einstein could latch on regions of the brain stronger than normal.

kv

 

Anybody here ever experience the opposite of deja vu?

I have, but it's much more rare that deja vu, which is itself rare. I guess maybe I've only felt it a handful of times. The typical manifestation is while driving familiar roads and suddenly having no idea which way to turn. No sense of direction, no sense of current position. If you don't panic, it fades just as quickly as it came on and suddenly you 'click' back into place. If you freak out, which is tempting!, I think it it takes longer to recover.

 

I'm only 32.

In a couple of years you'll be half as old as I am.

 

In a couple of years you'll be half as old as I am.

 

The typical manifestation is while driving familiar roads and suddenly having no idea which way to turn. No sense of direction, no sense of current position.

Some years ago I read about that effect and its theorized that it has to do with the fact our brains do not run all synaptic circuits relating to the various levels of memory and general conscious/subconscious interface every waking second. Rather why we can't recall something one moment then later it just pops into our head, that part of our brain relating to that memory was either sleeping or distracted with something else on the subconscious level.

Most of it comes from the fact that small parts of our brains are dedicated to certain tasks and if not used go into a sort of biological standby (mini sleep) mode which effectively takes their function out of play. If the part that holds the memory relating to some specific visual or like recall que is offline it is believed to be the triggering effect for the disconcerting feeling because the fight or flight system of our brains (which is almost always on when we are awake) senses something is not right when it should be.

These switching in and out of sleep mode are what we see when a brain scan is done and some is concentrating on different things. Different areas cycle on and off as they are needed.

 

Anybody here ever experience the opposite of deja vu? Today I was driving on a road that I just drove the other day, that I've driven on probably a few dozen times in the past few months, and I got this Eerie feeling that I had never been there before. The road did not look familiar at all. I drove for several miles looking for something, anything that looked familiar, and felt totally lost while knowing exactly where I was. I consulted my GPS several times to verify that I was in fact on the correct Road, and I was. It ended when I turned off of that road onto another road which I am also equally familiar with.

Are you worried about this or bragging? Some people pay lots of money and risk their health to experience such an altered reality.

If this is an undesirable effect, I suggest a change in jobs. Getting an employer to change your job is nearly impossible, but worth a try (tell them you are overworked or your responsibilities are too fragmented or you are in a no-win situation that is causing severe stress and effecting your health. If things don’t change, the job market is generally good and a good time to look at other options.

Stress will kill you. I’ve known too many 35-year olds that have had heart attacks or died in stupid accidents (falling asleeep while driving). Take care of yourself, your family needs you.

Note: it is also an early sign a seizure is about to happen.

 

I'm trying to be helpful here but I have no memory of where I learned this. The brain works with very little input and fills in the bulk of the mental picture with memory or expectations. That's why misdirection is so effective. That's why people think they suddenly went blind when they were losing their vision for months or years and woke up one day with the brain unable to fill in the blanks with so little new input.

All you need for jamais vu is some disturbance to the brain so it can't, "fill in the blanks" for a while.

One of my personal problems is visual overload. I go into a restaurant I've never seen before and it's all I can do to read the menu and interact with the waitress with all the new stimuli around me. This was very pronounced when I got out of hospital after 90 days of isolation. Too many people! Too much decoration! Too much noise! What works is to disregard the tables full of patrons as insignificant, or, "not a danger". Then my processing abilities are sufficient to see the decor, my table, and relevant people like the waitress. I think jamais vu works like that, except at inopportune times.

 

I'm trying to be helpful here but I have no memory of where I learned this. The brain works with very little input and fills in the bulk of the mental picture with memory or expectations. That's why misdirection is so effective. That's why people think they suddenly went blind when they were losing their vision for months or years and woke up one day with the brain unable to fill in the blanks with so little new input.

All you need for jamais vu is some disturbance to the brain so it can't, "fill in the blanks" for a while.

More than likely you either read about it or saw it on the same science shows or documentaries I saw the stuff I am talking about since I know exactly what you are saying as well which was in the same educational material you are referencing having came across but cant put an exact defining point on.

Same as you, I get sensory overload in new high activity locations. (seems worse with age too.) We just finished sugar beet harvest today around 4 PM so the crew headed over to the local bar to celebrate.

I stuck around for about an hour and a half until everyone showed up and the place just got too loud and busy for my likings. Same reasoning as you. Too many conversations and activity running at the sametime for me to take in all at once being I am terrible at filtering such things until I am more familiar with whom is talking about what.