There are memories that we sometimes share with others and it seems that they lived it in an alternate world or remember that event with different eyes or from another angle. But has it happened to all of us to remember something that only we can remember to the point of feeling alienated? Paramnesias are related to these characteristics of altered memories, which is why in this Psychology-Online article we share the topic with you. paramnesia: what it is, causes, symptoms, types and examples.
What is paramnesia
The paramnesia is a qualitative memory impairment and is characterized by the experience of delusions as memories. The person who suffers from paramnesias experiences false memories that he claims are true and that sometimes they can supplant real situations that are almost impossible to remember.
Paramnesias may have a characteristic of anosognosia: the person is not aware of their symptoms of confabulation and resists the contradictions that may arise.
Causes of paramnesia
Below are the characteristics of the two possible causes of paramnesias:
Organic causes
Most cases suggest that the pathology is caused by malfunction of brain systems involved in memory and the feeling of familiarity. Bonnet (1788) described the first case of paramnesia, however, in contemporary literature it is recognized that it was Arnold Pick (1903) who described the first cases of paramnesia, suggesting as the basis of his explanations that it was a convulsive episode that produced the memory impairment.
Current theories follow the lines of these two authors, especially Benson’s theory (1976) which suggests that damage to the right hemisphere of those affected are unable to maintain orientation due to a deterioration in visuospatial perception and their visual memory and damage to the frontal and parietal lobes that make it difficult to inhibit false impressions caused by the same disorientation.
This predominant association of lesions in the right cerebral hemisphere, mainly in the frontal lobe (which is responsible for the detection of errors and self-awareness or allopsychic and autopsychic orientation) and to a lesser extent the parietal lobe (which can cause denial of deficits and an inability to integrate components into a visual scene).
We then explain that in these cases the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, responsible for the recognition of stimuli associated with known places (home, work, local facilities in the city, school), is unaffected; Thus, the lesion in the frontal lobe disinhibits the occipitotemporal recognition areas, causing a false recognition of places, situations and people that cannot be detected and is maintained delusionally or delusionally.
These organic characteristics are also present in those that manifest themselves with the delusional belief that a place has been duplicated and exists simultaneously with the real one or has been transferred or relocated to another place (for example: the hospital where the person is admitted and the home itself). .
Psychopathology
In patients with paramnesias of organic etiology, the symptom of altered confabulatory memory is generally the only psychopathological manifestation. In patients with paramnesias and psychopathological comorbidities or with behavioral changes in their prodromal (initial) phase or prior to memory impairment, they suggest a psychiatric primary etiology.
Studies of a series of cases of paramnesia have also been described by Darby et al (2017) that identify affected brain areas: the left retrosplenial cortex (Brodmann areas 29 and 30) and the hippocampus that are related to the feeling of familiarity and spatial memory.
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Symptoms of paramnesia
Below are the symptoms that characterize paramnesias:
- Confabulation of memories (for example: people refer and maintain the memory of something that is the product of a delusion and that are sometimes firmly believed by the sufferer).
- Delusional false identification (of one’s own identity, situations, objects and places).
Types of paramnesia
exist two types of paramnesias which are distinguished by their type of affectation:
The recognition paramnesias
Among the recognition paramnesias are the following:
The paramnesias of memory.
Within the paramnesias of memory are the following:
- Deja vu: It is a type of paramnesia of recognition, described by Emile Boirac (1917), as a phenomenon of being sure that a sensory experience that is currently being experienced has been experienced in the past.
- Jamais vu: This phenomenon refers to when a person has the feeling that is not able to recognize a situationa place, a word or a person even though others contradict that rationally it should be familiar or known.
Paramnesias related to alcoholism
Excessive and/or chronic alcohol consumption has the consequences of a deficiency of Thiamin/vitamin B1, which can lead to a Korsakoff syndromea problem that causes memory impairment characterized by a conspiracy of memories very similar to the symptoms of paramnesias. For example: a person forms stories through nearby stimuli (images, objects, features of people, animals), connecting them and thus forming a memory that lives as real despite being told otherwise.
Example of paramnesia
In reduplicative paramnesias, the hospitalized patient reports that he is admitted to a copy of a hospital or claims that there are two identical hospitals. They may also claim to be living in a copy of their home.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Benson, D.F., Gardner, H., & Meadows, J.C. (1976). Reduplicative paramnesia.
- Bonnet, C. (1788; 1992). Description of Cotard’s delusion and reduplicative paramnesia in an elderly patient. British Journal of Psychiatry.
- Darby, R.R., Laganiere, S., Leone, P., Prasad, S., and Fox, M.D. (2017). Finding the imposter: brain connectivity of lesions causing delusional misidentifications. Brain.
- Boirac, E. (1917) L’Avenir des sciences psychiques. Paris. Felix Alcan.