Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Trump's speech could be early sign of Alzheimer's disease, says study | Society | The Guardian

Long-winded speech could be early sign of Alzheimer's disease, says study | Society | The Guardian

 Alzheimer's / Dementia is fraught with confabulation speak.

From my notes I quote: Prepared by:  Leilani Doty, PhD, Director, University of Florida Cognitive & Memory Disorder Clinics (MDC) Confabulation  People with anosognosia will often confabulate. Confabulation is making up an answer or responding with remarks that link pieces of information, time, places, and people that do not belong together.  Sometimes people will combine memories from different events and insist that the event unfolded that way.  They may describe an event as recent but it actually happened decades ago with different people.  Sometimes they mix information from the newspaper or television with a personal event.    A confabulation is not a lie. People who confabulate believe that their words are true. The response is essentially false, sometimes a mixing of past events, sometimes a mixture of past real events with imaginary details.

The confabulation may be simple or hold great detail and elaboration.  Sometimes the confabulation has such rich details such as describing a festive family gathering. Sometimes it is a simple, unimportant remark such as what was eaten at lunch a couple of hours before. To a stranger the remarks make sense; to the family member, who knows the person well, however, the remarks are distorted or untrue.  The purpose of the confabulation is not to mislead or lie.  Typically, the person is trying to answer a question or contribute to a conversation.

To those who do not know the person, the responses are reasonable, believable, socially acceptable (usually they are not outrageous or extremely bizarre), and appropriate.   However, the significant other will testify that the statements are inaccurate or never occurred.