What is the jamevue effect and why it is dangerous - psychologist's analysis

Have you experienced a strange sensation when familiar things and people suddenly become strangers? It can be terrifying, it can make you feel stunned. This effect is the opposite of deja vu. It’s called jamevu. What is it?

The mystery of jamevu has been solved by scientists. In 2021, a group of professors from different universities around the world conducted a study. In its framework, the subjects had to write the same word several times. As a result, about 70% of them faced an interesting effect. Familiar letters began to lose their meaning, and some participants could not even control the hand that was supposed to output them.

The researchers explained this phenomenon as the brain’s reaction to repetitive actions and automatism. In this way it signals us to bring us back to reality.

Another reason could be a link to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It leads to excessive fixation on something and distorted perception.

A similar experiment was conducted in 1907 by American psychologists. Its participants were asked to say the same word for a certain amount of time. In the process, the person stopped understanding what he was talking about. On average, it took 33 repetitions or a minute of time to achieve the jamevue effect.

Clinical psychologist (IP&CP), counseling psychologist

“Jamevue is much less common than deja vu. This is when a person may forget how to perform a simple action. For example, a teacher doesn’t know how to start a lesson, or a driver doesn’t know how to drive a car. There is a suggestion that the jamevue effect may be useful in understanding how OCD therapy might be delivered.”

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How does it work?

In neuropsychological terms, jamevue is a temporary disconnection between perception and memory. Neural pathways that are normally synchronized are disconnected for an indefinite period of time.

In addition, there is a suggestion that the sensation results from temporal lobe dysfunction due to fatigue, stress or neurological conditions, and from an imbalance of neurotransmitters (dopamine or serotonin).

Another theory suggests that a breakdown in attention mechanisms also leads to a loss of connection to the present. If we ignore the familiar, the brain begins to interpret it as foreign.

There is also an overlap between jamevu and dissociative states, disorientation.

In dissociation, a person involuntarily loses contact with reality. This can be expressed in partial or complete loss of conscious control over sensations (derealization), self-consciousness (depersonalization), motor functions. Jamevu is capable of accompanying this condition.

On its own, it may be part of a larger disorder. For example, an affective spectrum disorder (anxiety, bipolar, depressive) or a personality disorder (borderline, narcissistic, addiction).

Why does jamevue occur?

It serves the same function as dissociative states. It is triggered as an economy of cognitive and emotional resources in a moment of overstress. The effect is also triggered at the moment of retraumatization – replaying difficult experiences associated with a particular place or situation.

Jamevu can be a regular occurrence or a one-time occurrence. In the first case, it indicates the presence of a serious disorder. In the second – about mental exhaustion, severe fatigue.

How to overcome jamevu?

What will help to get out of stupor, if you are covered with this state? Here are some simple practices.

1. using “grounding” techniques. They involve turning to the body. It is important to feel the support, look around, say what you see, hear, feel, smell, what flavor you have on your tongue.

2. Touching objects. This also helps to make contact with reality.

3- Talking to other people accomplishes the same goal of getting back in touch with the present. Ask something of the person next to you. It is not necessary to talk about the state you are experiencing.

4. Breathing practices on a 3-6 or 4-8 count. The exhale should be longer than the inhale.

You can address yourself, “I don’t feel good right now, but it will pass. I am safe.” It will be valuable if you visualize yourself in a pleasant place. It is helpful to locate it while in a relaxed state. Remember where you felt good, or use your imagination to create it – take it from a cartoon, a movie, a picture.