Confabulations, when the memory fails

That Thursday morning, a woman told me that she had been walking through the forest that surrounded the residence in which she had lived for years. "I walked all morning between the trees. Then I have come to rest. Besides, All this you see is mine", He told me. His speech was normaconl and, in principle, very coherent. However, I observed it and she watched me. From that moment, I knew that the conspirations were a constant in his life.

But what was happening? That lady was prostrated in a wheelchair, so he couldn't walk. In addition, it remained admitted to a wing of a residence of the elderly in which those elders with quite advanced dementias were. Of course, the residence was not his. Nothing that the lady told me was true, However, she believed what she said, it was her truth.

Content

• Spontaneous conspirations
• Theories about the origin of the conspirations
  • Temporality deficit
  • Deficit in strategic recovery processes
  • Bibliography

Spontaneous conspirations

As Ardeno, Bembibre and Triviño (2012) stand out, "Spontaneous conspiracy is an alteration that neatly affects episodic memory - Although also compromises semantic memory -, altering both the genesis of new memories and the recovery of the oldest strokes".

In the definition of the authors, we observe that those who suffer from spontaneous conspiracy are capable of inventing stories completely believing that they are memories of their past. Thus, They can mix the new with the old and elaborate plausible stories but without any veracity. The protagonist of the beginning of this article remembered when he could still walk and mixed it with the reality of the forest that surrounded the residence. Thus, I could perfectly report that every morning he went for a walk on foot through nature.

Theories about the origin of the conspirations

Causes on conspiracy are still debate. Despite this, various authors and research teams have postulated different theories about this phenomenon. Next, those most outstanding theories will be reviewed.

Temporality deficit

The theory of temporality deficit is about result of confusion in the temporary order of information that recovers memory. Dalla Barba (1999) team adds that "Confabulating patients are aware of a past, present and future, but when making temporary judgments, They can only use the most stable elements of their autobiographical memories".

Schnider (1996) defends that the conspirations are the result "From a confusion of current reality with past events, that is, a temporary-contextual confusion". In this way, the information that could be important is recovered and used in a present in a disconnected way. Ciaramelli (2006) postulates that this type of collusion arises from injuries in the previous limbic structures such as the posterior orbitofrontal cortex, basal prosecrephal, tonsil, perircinal cortex and medial hypothalamus.

Deficit in strategic recovery processes

As described by the research team of Florencia Pérez (2012), according to deficit theory in strategic recovery processes, the consfications would be the result "of the Deficit in memory information recovery processes, since coding, consolidation or storage are processes that are usually within the standard ". Suffering a recovery deficit would result in a defective search and an ordination and erroneous placement of memories in contexts that are not adequate.

In 1995, Moscovitch proposed the existence of Two types of recovery: associative and strategic. The associative recovery It would be dependent on the signal and the memory would be generated automatically. The Strategic recovery It would be similar to the solution of a problem, in which the signals are not enough to successfully access information recovery. Alterations in this type of recovery are manifested as an inability to monitor and proper evaluation of "output" and Two types of errors are generated: omission and conspiracy.

The omission error occurs when specific keys are not suitable for producing an answer. Confabulation would be the result of a defective recovery And in the response that is issued there is no proper evaluation or monitoring. Moscovitch, suggests that the frontal lobes would be involved in the conspiracy. His role would be associated with coding, strategic recovery and the temporary organization of memory. During the recovery process the temporary organization of memory becomes especially sensitive to alterations, which would facilitate the appearance of collusion.

Johnson's team (1997), postulates that the conspirations are the cause of the deficit in the control of reality, which triggers that People are unable to distinguish between memories of the past and unreal events. According to this theory, the alteration would be at the level of the coding process. In this way, memories would be produced without keys and the source could not be determined. Regarding this theory, the Florencia Pérez (2012) team claim that it is also considered "An alteration in the process of reactivation, consolidation and access to stored information, in addition to a deficit in motivation and difficulty to carry out judgments". Thus, The subject would make assessments of an event through erroneous criteria.

This deficit also contemplates the control of reality. This control refers to the ability we have to discriminate between internal and external representations. For example, an internal representation would be imagination and an external perception of a stimulus. Hence The fact of not distinguishing between an internal representation created and a real external one could give rise to a consfabulation.

Bibliography

• Arnedo, m., Bembibre, j. And Triviño, M. (2013). Neuropsychology. Through clinical cases. Madrid: Pan American Medical Editorial.
• Dalla Barba, G., Nedjam, z., and Dubois, B. (1999). CONFABULATION, Executive Functions, and Source Memory In Alzheimer's Disease. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16(3/4/5), 385-398.
• Johnson, m., O'Connor, m., And singer, J. (1997). CONFABULATION, MEMORY DEFICITS, AND FRONT DYSFUNCTION. Brain and Cognition, 3. 4, 189-206.
• Moscovitch, m. (nineteen ninety five). CONFULATION. In d. L. Schacter (ed.), Memory Distortions.
• Pérez, f., Orozco, g., Galicia, m., Gómez, m., Ortega, l., Garcia, n. And Pérez, H. (2012). The conspirations: Beyond a Mnesic deficit. Chilean Neuropsychology Magazine, 7 (3), 134-140.