Enfoque metodológico para la innovación en empresas

Abstract

Introduction. A working definition of confabulations would be to describe them as false memories that are the result of some problem in the process of retrieval, while the patient is unaware of their inaccuracy and genuinely believes them to be true. Several different types of confabulations have been reported, on the basis of a wide range of criteria. Confabulations may be seen in a wide assortment of neurological disorders and a great deal of controversy surrounds the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying them. Aims. To conduct an updated review in Spanish on the definition and different types of confabulations, as well as the neuropsychological correlates and the regions of the brain involved. Development. After reviewing the concept and different types of confabulations, the article moves on to describe the damaged regions of the brain in two pathologies in which confabulations may occur, namely Korsakoff’s syndrome and patients with ruptured aneurysms in the anterior communicating artery. The neuropsychological correlates associated with them are then reviewed. Conclusions. Confabulations are a complex phenomenon that is difficult to define. Probably the most widely accepted classification is the one based on the way they appear. Thus, a distinction is made between spontaneous and provoked confabulations, although it is not altogether clear just how valid such a differentiation is. As regards the crucial brain regions involved in confabulations, it seems that damage to the prefrontal cortex, and more specifically in the ventromedial and orbitofrontal areas, is necessary for the phenomenon to appear. Neuropsychological evidence suggests the presence, in most cases, of executive dysfunction and at least a certain degree of memory dysfunction as underlying mechanisms. The specific features of these neuropsychological dysfunctions, however, are still not well understood.