Orbitofrontal reality filtering

Abstract

Decades of research have deepened our understanding of how the brain forms memories and uses them to build our mental past and future. But how does it determine whether an evoked memory refers to the present and can be acted upon? The study of patients who confuse reality, as evident from confabulation and disorientation, has opened ways to explore this vital capacity. Results indicate that the brain recurs to a phylogenetically old faculty of the orbitofrontal cortex -extinction -and structures of the reward system to keep thought and behavior in phase with reality.

Autobiographical memory in amnesia

“…Theories of context memory confusion [33] propose that confabulations result from a tendency to retrieve memories out of context, usually out of temporal sequence. More recently, this has been described as a failure in reality orientation [34,35]. Secondly, and somewhat related, is Dalla Barba's [36,37] argument that temporal consciousness is intact but malfunctioning.…”