WHAT ARE CONFABULATORS’ MEMORIES MADE OF? A STUDY OF SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MEASURES OF RECOLLECTION IN CONFABULATION

Joanne Shih

Elisa Ciaramelli, Simona Ghetti

What is confabulation?

A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened

What is confabulation?

A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened

Known causes: Brain damage Psychological or psychiatric disorders

(e.g. Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease)

What is confabulation?

A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened

Known causes: Brain damage Psychological or psychiatric disorders

(e.g. Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease) Confabulators: re-live their confabulatory

reports as if they are true memories

Research Objective

To what extent are confabulators’ subjective experiences of memories based on what they recall objectively?

Background

Subjective experience of memories are the same as the details they recall

Healthy Individuals

Background

Subjective experience of memories are the same as the details they recall

Have the ability to remember, but their subjective memories are based on faulty recollection

Healthy Individuals Confabulators

Hypotheses

The subjective experience of remembering and the objective ability to recollect qualitative features are distinct in confabulating patients unlike in normal subjects

This is due to their excessive processing of context-irrelevant information upon recollection

Participants

12 patients with brain damage 5 confabulators (4

males, 1 female) 7 non-

confabulators (4 males, 3 females)

12 healthy individuals

Exp. 1: Summary

Confabulating patients: impaired recollection of information but exhibited subjective experience of memories

Non-confabulating patients: impaired recollection of information and impaired subjective experience of memories

Exp. 2: Method

40 words in two sets (4-8 letters long) Set 1: Study Set 2: Distracters

R/K Recognition Task: R-“remember” K- “know”

‘R’ responses= subjective measure of recollection

Raters: Categorized

patients’ responses Intra-list Extra-list Self-referent

Exp. 2: Method

octopus

Study

octopus

Recognition

Old? Remember? Know?New?

One word presented every

3s

Exp. 2: Results

Confabulators’ R responses (their subjective recollection) were not triggered by specific details from the context

…They were mainly triggered by self-referent (autobiographical) information Aka, context-irrelevant info

Discussion

Excessive processing of context-irrelevant info seems to be responsible for: The dissociation between subjective and

objective measures of recollection in confabulators

Their vivid recollection of false memories

Why the failure to inhibit irrelevant info? Confabulators have problems adapting

to reality

Discussion Cont’d.

Having large amounts of retrievable info for recollection influences feeling of knowing

Confabulating patients’ memory decisions are cluttered by large amount of info Influences their sense of knowing Promotes confidence in their false

memories

Future Directions

Study factors involved in failure to inhibit irrelevant information

Investigate therapeutic applications Link findings with anatomical structures

involved

Take-Home Message

Limiting patients’ access to irrelevant info will improve memory performance

Opinion of Paper

Good background experimental designs

Addressed alternative explanations for findings

Lack of figures: an example of the word task used would clarify procedure

Uneven distribution of confabulating patients and gender

Strengths Weaknesses

Questions?