Imaginary filling of memory gaps is known as?

Appeared in: AIIMS Delhi NO - 2017

Explanation

Confabulation is the unconscious fabrication of stories or experiences to fill in gaps in memory.
The individual is not intentionally lying and believes these fabricated memories to be real.
It is a key symptom in certain neurological conditions like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, dementia, and brain injuries resulting from frontal lobe dysfunction.

Why Other Options Were Wrong

Option A: This is a disorder of the thought process, not memory. It involves providing excessive, irrelevant detail but eventually returning to the main point.
Option B: This is also a disorder of the thought process. The speaker deviates from the topic and never returns to the original point.
Option D: This is a disorder of recognition or familiarity, not a method of filling memory gaps. It's the feeling that a new situation has been experienced before.

Related Visual

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Disorders of Memory and Thought Process as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
Nurses must recognize confabulation as a symptom of a neurological deficit, not as deliberate lying. This understanding guides a therapeutic, non-confrontational approach.
When caring for a patient who confabulates, the nurse should gently reorient them to reality without arguing about the fabricated memory, and focus on safety and managing the underlying condition.
What if? If the patient was aware they were making things up to deceive the nurse, this would be considered malingering or lying, not confabulation, and would require a different approach focusing on the motivation behind the deception.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the key phrase in the question stem: 'Imaginary filling of memory gaps'.
This is a definition-based recall question. Your task is to match the definition to the correct psychiatric term.
Review the options. Consider the specific meaning of each term related to thought, speech, and memory.
Circumstantiality and Tangentiality relate to the flow of thought and speech, not filling memory gaps.
Déjà vu relates to a false sense of familiarity.
Confabulation directly matches the definition of creating false memories to fill in gaps. Select this as the correct answer.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Disorders of Memory and Thought Process
Stem keywords: Imaginary filling, memory gaps
Lead-in keywords: known as

Question ID

Qup9rulPOQi2uAQzZABG4Q

Reference Book

E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) pp. 3850-3852, 3795-3797, 3851-3853

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