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Different patterns of confabulation in left visuo-spatial neglect

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results received funding from the ‘Agence Nationale de la Recherche’ [grants number ANR-09-EMER-006 and number ANR-13-JSV4-0001-01]. Additional support comes from the program “Investissements d’avenir” ANR-10-IAIHU-06.

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Correspondence to Paolo Bartolomeo.

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Dalla Barba, G., Brazzarola, M., Barbera, C. et al. Different patterns of confabulation in left visuo-spatial neglect. Exp Brain Res 236, 2037–2046 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5281-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5281-8

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