Mechanisms of confabulation

Abstract

Patients who exhibited frank confabulation were examined with four tests designed to elucidate the nature of confabulation in a structured situation, test the ability of confabulators to use cues, and examine the degree to which certain cognitive deficits are associated with confabulation. Two groups of confabulators emerged: mild and severe. Severity of confabulation was associated with perseveration, impaired self-monitoring facility, and failure to inhibit incorrect responses. Attenuation of these cognitive deficits with resolution of confabulation in a single patient suggested that the two levels of confabulation represented different levels of impairment of the same disorder.