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When less attention improves behavior
January 22, 2009A new study conducted at the Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna, and published by Elsevier in the February 2009 issue of Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex) shows that, in confabulating patients, memory accuracy improves when attentional resources are reduced.
Most cognitive processes supporting adaptive behavior need attentional resources for their operation. Consider memory. If memory was a car, attention would be its fuel: New information is not stored into memory if not attended to, and distraction often leads to misremembering past events. What if the car's brakes are broken? Will adding fuel still be a good thing? Confabulation is a devastating memory disorder consisting in the uncontrolled production of "false memories". Patients often act upon their false memories, with dramatic consequences. The research published in Cortex shows that if memory in confabulation is like a car with broken brakes, then it is best not to add fuel.
The study involved patients with lesions in the prefrontal lobe, including patients with and without confabulation, and healthy individuals. In two experiments, participants retrieved their memories either with full attention or divided attention (i.e., while doing another task). Non-confabulating patients and healthy individuals performed better when their full attention was devoted to the memory task. Not so for confabulating patients: Under full attention, confabulating patients exhibited high false-memory levels, which were strongly reduced when their attention was divided between two tasks.
The results of this study are important both theoretically and practically. First, they indicate that lack of attention during memory retrieval is not the reason for confabulation. Rather, confabulating patients might over-process irrelevant information during mnemonic decisions, and therefore reducing attentional resources available for such a dysfunctional processing enhances memory. Moreover, the results are crucial for developing rehabilitative interventions tailored to confabulating patients. Training them to double-check the accuracy of their memories may not be useful. In fact, these patients should be trained not to attend, and act upon, their mnemonic impressions.
Elsevier
The results of this study are important both theoretically and practically. First, they indicate that lack of attention during memory retrieval is not the reason for confabulation. Rather, confabulating patients might over-process irrelevant information during mnemonic decisions, and therefore reducing attentional resources available for such a dysfunctional processing enhances memory. Moreover, the results are crucial for developing rehabilitative interventions tailored to confabulating patients. Training them to double-check the accuracy of their memories may not be useful. In fact, these patients should be trained not to attend, and act upon, their mnemonic impressions.
Elsevier
An amnesic patient with an extraordinary distorted memory
If somebody asks you "Do you remember what you did on March 13, 1985?" you are very likely to answer "I don't know", even if your memory is excellent.
Delusions associated with consistent pattern of brain injury
A new study provides a novel theory for how delusions arise and why they persist. NYU Langone Medical Center researcher Orrin Devinsky, MD, performed an in-depth analysis of patients with certain delusions and brain disorders revealing a consistent pattern of injury to the frontal lobe and right hemisphere of the human brain.
When your memories can no longer be trusted
You went to a wedding yesterday. The service was beautiful, the food and drink flowed and there was dancing all night. But people tell you that you are in hospital, that you have been in hospital for weeks, and that you didn't go to a wedding yesterday at all.
More Confabulation Current Events and Confabulation News Articles
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Confabulation: views from neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and philosophy by William Hirstein (Editor) When people confabulate, they make an ill-grounded claim that they honestly believe is true. There have been countless fascinating examples of confabulatory behaviour - people falsely recalling events from their childhood, the subject who was partially blind but insisted he could see, the amputee convinced that he retained all his limbs, to the patient who believed that his own parents had been replaced by imposters. Though confabulations can result from neurological damage, they can also appear in perfectly healthy people. Yet, how can confabulators so often appear to be of sound mind, yet not see their own errors? This book brings together some of the most advanced thinking on confabulation in neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy, in an attempt to understand this... |
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Brain Fiction: Self-Deception and the Riddle of Confabulation (Philosophical Psychopathology) by William Hirstein (Author) CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2005 Some neurological patients exhibit a striking tendency to confabulate—to construct false answers to a question while genuinely believing that they are telling the truth. A stroke victim, for example, will describe in detail a conference he attended over the weekend when in fact he has not left the hospital. Normal people, too, sometimes have a tendency to confabulate; rather than admitting "I don't know," some people will make up an answer or an explanation and express it with complete conviction. In Brain Fiction, William Hirstein examines confabulation and argues that its causes are not merely technical issues in neurology or cognitive science but deeply revealing about the structure of the human intellect. ... |
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Confabulation Dog Pencil Drawing Fine Old Art Sketch by old-print Old Antique Historical Victorian Prints Maps and Historic Fine Art----------. Confabulation Dog Pencil Drawing Fine Old Art Sketch Page And Reverse Side From An Issue Of 1903 . Wood Engravings &Amp; Early Photographs From . The Sphere . An Illustrated London Newspaper . Would Make An Ideal Gift . The Actual Date Is Printed On Each Page . This Print Is Over 100 Years Old. And Is Not A Modern Copy. Check The Image For Details.. Size Of Print Is Approx&Nbsp; 12" X 8.5" (480X300) . Approx. Page Size = 16" X 11.5" (410X290) . Ready To Matt And Frame. These Old Prints Really Look Great With Mount And Framed. . Note This Print Is From A Periodical And Has Printing On Reverse.. Scanned At A Low Resolution For Quick Uploading So The Actual Picture Is Better... |
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Confabulation Theory: The Mechanism of Thought by Robert Hecht-Nielsen (Author) Confabulation theory offers the first complete detailed explanation of the mechanism of cognition, i.e., thinking, an essential information processing capability of all enbrained Earth animals (bees, octopi, trout, ravens, humans, et al.). Concentrating on the human case, this book offers an hypothesis for the neuronal implementation of cognition, and explores the mathematics and methods of application of its mechanism. Thinking turns out to be starkly alien in comparison with all known technological approaches to information processing. While probably not yet scientifically testable, confabulation theory seems consistent with the facts of neuroscience. Beyond science, any complete detailed explanation of cognition can be investigated by applying it technologically. Multiple... |
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Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President by Edward Steers Jr. (Author) In the more than 140 years since his death, Abraham Lincoln has become America's most revered president. The mythmaking about this self-made man began early, some of it starting during his campaign for the presidency in 1860. As an American icon, Lincoln has been the subject of speculation and inquiry as authors and researchers have examined every aspect -- personal and professional -- of the president's life. In Lincoln Legends, noted historian and Lincoln expert Edward Steers Jr. carefully scrutinizes some of the most notorious tall tales and distorted ideas about America's sixteenth president. These inaccuracies and speculations about Lincoln's personal and professional life abound. Did he write his greatest speech on the back of an envelope on the way to Gettysburg? Did Lincoln... |
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What A Piece of Work I Am: A Novel (A Confabulation) by Eric Kraft (Author) Meet Ariane Lodkochnikov: clam-bar waitress, avant-garde actress, 1950s small-town bad girl, causeless rebel, boyhood crush, and ideal figment of the imagination of Peter Leroy. Peter is the engaging narrator of this novel; Ariane is the unreliable narrator of her own life. With Peter listening raptly, she weaves a tale of voyages -- some erotic, some poignant, some hilariously disastrous, all leading her back to the seaside town of Babbington. Eric Kraft's novels featuring Peter Leroy offer more than meets the eye, and What a Piece of Work I Am is a treasure trove for readers: a woman's quest to escape her reputation, an echo-chamber of myth, and a fascinating meditiation on the human urge to tell and hear stories. |
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