Different patterns of confabulation in left visuo-spatial neglect

• Published in: Experimental brain research Vol. 236; no. 7; pp. 2037 - 2046
• Main Authors: Dalla Barba, Gianfranco, Brazzarola, Marta, Barbera, Claudia, Marangoni, Sara, Causin, Francesco, Bartolomeo, Paolo, Thiebaut de Schotten, Michel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Aged; Attention; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Case studies; Case-Control Studies; Cognitive neuroscience; Confabulation; Confabulation (Psychology); Consciousness; Cortex; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Executive function; Functional Laterality; Hemispheric laterality; Houses; Human health and pathology; Humans; Hypotheses; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Life Sciences; Male; Memory; Memory Disorders - classification; Memory Disorders - diagnostic imaging; Memory Disorders - etiology; Neglect syndromes; Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging; Neural Pathways - pathology; Neurological research; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuropsychology; Neurosciences; Patients; Perceptual Disorders - complications; Perceptual Disorders - diagnostic imaging; Perceptual Disorders - etiology; Photic Stimulation; Research Article; Space Perception - physiology; Stroke - complications; Unilateral neglect; Visual perception; Visual stimuli; Implicit knowledge; Confabulation; Neglect
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5281-8

Confabulating patients produce statements and actions that are unintentionally incongruous to their history, background, present and future situation. Here we present the very unusual case of a patient with right hemisphere damage and signs of left visual neglect, who, when presented with visual stimuli, confabulated both for consciously undetected and for consciously detected left-sided details. Advanced anatomical investigation suggested a disconnection between the parietal and the temporal lobes in the right hemisphere. A disconnection between the ventral cortical visual stream and the dorsal fronto-parietal networks in the right hemisphere may contribute to confabulatory behaviour by restricting processing of left-sided stimuli to pre-conscious stages in the ventral visual stream.