Scientific article
English

Mechanism of disorientation: reality filtering versus content monitoring

Published inCortex, vol. 49, no. 10, p. 2628-2636
Publication date2013
Abstract

Disorientation is frequent after brain damage. It is a constituent component of post-traumatic amnesia and was part of the original definition of the Korsakoff syndrome, together with amnesia and confabulations. Orbitofrontal reality filtering is a pre-conscious memory control process that has been held accountable for disorientation and a specific type of confabulations that patients act upon. A recent study questioned the specificity of this process and suggested that confabulating patients who failed in orbitofrontal reality filtering similarly failed to monitor the precise content of memories, a critical step within the strategic retrieval account, which describes a series of processes leading up to the recollection of memories. In the present study we combined the proposed experimental requirements of both processes in a single continuous recognition task and tested a group of 21 patients with a matched deficit of delayed free recall. We found that only deficient reality filtering, but not content monitoring, significantly correlated with disorientation and distinguished between confabulators and non-confabulators. Thus, reality confusion, as evident in disorientation and behaviourally spontaneous confabulation, primarily reflects an inability to monitor memories' relation with ongoing reality rather than to monitor their precise content.

Keywords
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Amnesia/psychology
  • Confusion/psychology
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Learning
  • Male
  • Memory/physiology
  • Mental Recall/physiology
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Orientation/physiology
  • Perception/physiology
  • Psychomotor Performance/physiology
  • Trail Making Test
  • Verbal Behavior
Citation (ISO format)
BOUZERDA-WAHLEN, Aurélie et al. Mechanism of disorientation: reality filtering versus content monitoring. In: Cortex, 2013, vol. 49, n° 10, p. 2628–2636. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.07.014
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Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0010-9452
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