Overview

Confabulations are memories of events and experiences that have never actually happened. Such false memories have fascinated scientists for over a century, and in recent years been the subject of much debate. This is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of an extraordinary and controversial subject. Written by a leading authority, it re-traces the history of this phenomenon and explores its causes, anatomical basis, and mechanisms. It looks at how confabulations relate to other failures of memory and considers phenomena such as déjà-vu, paramnesic misidentification, disorientation, and anosognosia. The book also examines similarities and differences between pathological confabulations and normal false memories, as they occur in healthy people. Providing important insights into memory in general, the book will be of interest to neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and other scientists and clinicians interested in the organization of memory and thought.

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9780199206759

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Reviews

Armin Schnider's fascinating new book ... will bring readers to the cutting edge of research on confabulation. Investigators of memory and the brain and graduate students in neuroscience and psychology will find much of value here. Daniel Schacter, Nature Neuroscience An authoritative and challenging yet impressively accessible and enjoyable text for anyone interested in the neurobiology of cognition. Daniel Schacter, Nature Neuroscience The Confabulating Mind is an up-to-date review of confabulation, ranging from its debated definition, aetiology, and anatomical bases, to neuropsychological mechanisms... The result is impressive, with high historical and neuropsychological accuracy... clear, concise, and empirically based, with an excellent review of the literature... This book will interest a wide audience, including neurologists, clinicians, students, and researchers. Elisa Ciaramelli, Lancet Neurology ...an authoritative and comprehensive book on confabulation that will no doubt make experts wonder how the field has progressed thus far without it. British Journal of Psychiatry This comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the remarkable phenomenon of confabulation ranges from rich clinical description to neurology, anatomy, and neuropsychology. It will be useful to clinicians, neuropsychologists, and other scientists interested in the organization of memory and thought. Larry R. Squire, Ph.D., University of California San Diego Armin Schnider's splendid book is the first definitive account of all aspects of confabulation - behavioural, neuroanatomical and theoretical- which has appeared for more than 50 years. It will be both an invaluable introduction to the disorder for neurologists, neuropsychologists and cognitive neuroscientists and an essential source book for researchers on the interface between cognition and memory. Tim Shallice, FMedSci, FRS, SISSA Trieste & University College London Schnider has written an ambitious, highly-readable, stimulating and important book on confabulation and memory. He weaves descriptions of patients with sophisticated analysis of their disorder that covers neuroanatomy, behaviour, cognition, functional imaging, and neurophysiology. The reader emerges with a deep understanding not only of confabulation, but of memory in general. The book addresses the difficult problem at the heart of confabulation: How do we construct and modify our sense of reality? The provocative answers Schnider provides will stimulate discussion and thus make this book ideal for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on memory. Morris Moscovitch, Ph.D., University of Toronto

Investigators of memory and the brain... will find much of value here. Nature Neuroscience The author draws upon his extensive clinical and research experience... to produce an authoritative and challenging yet impressively accessible and enjoyable text for anyone interested in the neurobiology of cognition. American Journal of Psychiatry Armin Schnider's fascinating new book ... will bring readers to the cutting edge of research on confabulation. Investigators of memory and the brain and graduate students in neuroscience and psychology will find much of value here. Daniel Schacter, Nature Neuroscience An authoritative and challenging yet impressively accessible and enjoyable text for anyone interested in the neurobiology of cognition. Daniel Schacter, Nature Neuroscience The Confabulating Mind is an up-to-date review of confabulation, ranging from its debated definition, aetiology, and anatomical bases, to neuropsychological mechanisms... The result is impressive, with high historical and neuropsychological accuracy... clear, concise, and empirically based, with an excellent review of the literature... This book will interest a wide audience, including neurologists, clinicians, students, and researchers. Elisa Ciaramelli, Lancet Neurology ...an authoritative and comprehensive book on confabulation that will no doubt make experts wonder how the field has progressed thus far without it. British Journal of Psychiatry This comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the remarkable phenomenon of confabulation ranges from rich clinical description to neurology, anatomy, and neuropsychology. It will be useful to clinicians, neuropsychologists, and other scientists interested in the organization of memory and thought. Larry R. Squire, Ph.D., University of California San Diego Armin Schnider's splendid book is the first definitive account of all aspects of confabulation - behavioural, neuroanatomical and theoretical- which has appeared for more than 50 years. It will be both an invaluable introduction to the disorder for neurologists, neuropsychologists and cognitive neuroscientists and an essential source book for researchers on the interface between cognition and memory. Tim Shallice, FMedSci, FRS, SISSA Trieste & University College London Schnider has written an ambitious, highly-readable, stimulating and important book on confabulation and memory. He weaves descriptions of patients with sophisticated analysis of their disorder that covers neuroanatomy, behaviour, cognition, functional imaging, and neurophysiology. The reader emerges with a deep understanding not only of confabulation, but of memory in general. The book addresses the difficult problem at the heart of confabulation: How do we construct and modify our sense of reality? The provocative answers Schnider provides will stimulate discussion and thus make this book ideal for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on memory. Morris Moscovitch, Ph.D., University of Toronto This is a fascinating book, systematic in its approach. For those disinclined to battle through the detail, the conclusions to each chapter are excellent. AJ Larner, Cognitive Function Clinic, WCNN, Liverpool

Author Information

Armin Schnider is professor of neurorehabilitation at the University Hospital of Geneva. He did his medical degree at the University of Basle and specialized in neurology in Bern, Zürich, and Los Angeles. His primary research interests are memory disorders and the neurobiological foundations of confabulations and reality control in thinking.

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