Provoked and spontaneous confabulations in Alzheimer's disease: An examination of their prevalence and relation with general cognitive and executive functioning

Abstract

Aim: A dissociation can be made between confabulations that are produced when the subject is directly questioned (i.e., provoked confabulations) and context-free, unprovoked confabulations (i.e., spontaneous confabulations). Unlike provoked confabulations, there is a paucity of research on spontaneous confabulations in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our paper assessed this issue by assessing both types of confabulation in participants with mild to moderate AD and controls. Methods: Provoked confabulations were evaluated with questions probing personal and general knowledge, whereas spontaneous confabulations were rated by nursing and medical staff. Results: Findings showed more provoked confabulations in AD participants than in controls. Only occasional appearance of spontaneous confabulations was observed in the AD participants. Further, spontaneous confabulations in AD participants were significantly correlated with general cognitive functioning, but not with executive functioning. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that spontaneous confabulations in AD are relatively rare, at least in the mild to moderate stage of the disease.