Confabulation and Memory in Patients With Alzheimers Disease

• Published in: Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 172 - 184
• Main Authors: Tallberg, Ing-Mari, Almkvist, Ove
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colchester Taylor & Francis Group 01-04-2001; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Female; Geriatrics; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Memory; Memory Disorders - etiology; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Severity of Illness Index; Verbal Behavior; Human; Implicit memory; Memory disorder; Nervous system diseases; Semantic memory; Cognitive disorder; Alzheimer disease; Priming effect; Autobiographical memory; Cerebral disorder; Fabulation; Semantics; Central nervous system disease; Degenerative disease; Episodic memory; Elderly
• ISSN: 1380-3395; 1744-411X
• DOI: 10.1076/jcen.23.2.172.1215

Confabulation occurs in many brain diseases and concomitant with various cognitive disturbances. The purpose of the present study was to describe semantic features of confabulation and to investigate the relationship between these features and aspects of memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). A group of 15 AD patients were asked questions aiming to evoke confabulations. The answers were analyzed with focus on semantic remoteness to the target answers into four different categories that made it possible to study the genesis of confabulation. Cognitive tests measuring episodic and semantic memory, priming as well as global cognitive functioning were performed, and the results were related to semantic features of confabulation. Results showed that semantic remoteness to the target answers was positively related to poor performance on Mini Mental State Examination but not to item recall, word fluency, or priming. It appears that difficulties with retrieval of recent autobiographical memories may have resulted in substitution of correct information with remote autobiographical memories, that is primary dysdeictic confabulations.