Confabulation: Remembering ‘another’ past, planning ‘another’ future

Abstract

In this study we describe a patient, GA, who developed an amnesic-confabulatory syndrome, following a subarachnoid haemorrhage and ischaemia due to rupture of the anterior communicating artery and subsequent vasospasm. As far as the performance on memory tasks was concerned, GA's confabulation was found to be restricted to the autobiographical aspect of episodic memory. Confabulation did not manifest itself in episodic learning tasks nor on tasks tapping various kinds of semantic knowledge. In contrast, GA confabulated in orientation in time and place tasks and also in tasks where she was required to plan her personal future. GA's confabulation could not be accounted for in terms of an impairment of strategic retrieval or of reality monitoring processes. It is suggested that GA's confabulation reflects a pathological awareness of personal temporality.

Key words:

• confabulation
• amnesia
• consciousness
• temporality