Confabulation

Confabulation is a memory disorder that may occur in patients who have sustained damage to both the basal forebrain and the frontal lobes. And is defined as the spontaneous production of false memories: either memories for events which never occurred, or memories of actual events which are displaced in space or time. Confabulation: knowledge and recollective experience. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 10(1), 1-20. Confabulation is considered “honest lying,” but is distinct from lying because there is typically no intent to deceive and the individuals are unaware that their information is false. Although patients can present blatantly false information (“fantastic confabulation”), confabulatory information can also be coherent, internally consistent, and relatively normal. Individuals who confabulate are generally very confident about their recollections, despite evidence contradicting its truthfulness. The most known causes of confabulation are traumatic and acquired (e.g., aneurysm, edema) brain damage, and psychiatric or psychological disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar, Alzheimer`s).