The confabulation battery: Instructions and international data from normal participants

ABSTRACT

Confabulation is an unusual sign in neurological and in neuropsychological pathologies. In this article we present an objective neuropsychological instrument, the Confabulation Battery (CB), which allows the quantifying and qualifying of different types of confabulations. The CB was administered to French and Italian normal participants. Data from the present study will allow clinicians and researchers, using the CB, to know how much and in which memory domains their confabulating patients confabulate compared to normal participants. We present international data, instructions and guidelines for the CB, a tool used in different ways worldwide. Not quantifying confabulations, namely not reporting how much and in which domain patients confabulate, can hardly lead to conclusions on the neurocognitive bases of this phenomenon. Following the instructions in this article, versions of the CB can be adapted in different languages and cultures. Quantification and qualification of confabulation is necessary and demanded in order to compare sensibly data from different research and clinical groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Confabulation
• Memory
• Amnesia
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Confabulation Battery
• Memory distortion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The French and Italian versions of the CB are available on request from the first author: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by the “Agence Nationale de la Recherche” [grant number ANR-09-EMER-006]