The syndrome of false memories designates the fact of remembering an event that never took place while being convinced that it happened and that we were there. Can depression cause these false memories? How to recognize a false memory?
False memory syndrome is manifested by distortions (transformation, imagination, forgetting) of an event when recalling or acknowledging it. Cognitive decline linked to memory disorders (stroke, Alzheimer’s) is not the only cause of this phenomenon. The depression can also cause false memories. These false memories can also manifest in healthy people and lead to false testimonials. How recognize a false memory? What are its causes ? What to do in case of false memory syndrome?
What is false memory syndrome?
The phenomenon of false memory refers to recalling or recognizing events that never happened. False memories present distortions and interpretations of an event real. They concern the episodic memory, that is to say, that of personally experienced events. While most false memories are related to cerebral pathologiessome appear in healthy patients and may lead to false testimony for example. “Every memory contains a part of deformations since in essence it is a reconstruction more or less approximate reality from what we know about ourselves and memories of the details experienced, and this is a normal phenomenon“explains Pascale Piolino, professor of cognitive psychology and specialist in autobiographical memory in a article published in 2006. Memories can be subject to transformation, mixing, imagination, alteration as well as forgetting. A person is the victim of a false memory when he recalls an event that she thinks she has experienced and which in fact did not take place, which is called confabulation or “honest lying”. “For some, it would actually be false memories constructed by patients under the influence of more or less constraining suggestions presented by therapists during therapy. If the question of false memories relates to the construction of an event that the person believes to have lived, in a more general way the question extends to various transformations that our memories can undergo depending on various parameters present when we pick them up“says Xavier Seron, Professor of Neuropsychology whom we interviewed.
Why do I have false memories?
► “There is the role of repetition. By dint of producing stories about what happened to us, we can depending on the audience and the reasons for which we evoke a memory insist on this or that aspect or fill in a gap in a fragmentary memory and unconsciously create a distorted memory which will nevertheless be deeply embedded in our memory and which we will take as true“says Professor Seron.
► There are also some source error confusion : the subject is mistaken about the context (spatial, temporal or social) in which the remembered event took place. “I can remember, for example, a remark from my father such as “a job must be perfect otherwise it has to be redone” and attribute it to him because he was particularly demanding and authoritarian to then discover – by discussing with other members of my family – that this comment was made by my mother” illustrates the neuropsychologist.
► Our schemas about events, our stereotypes about people can influence our retrieval mechanisms and influence the content of our narratives when recalling a memory.
► The weakening of age-related memories or memory disorders with cognitive decline (Alzheimer, stroke, Korsakoff syndrome for example)
► The Depression would also have an influence on autobiographical memory and could bias it. “depressed people outweigh negative experiences of their past, they are more frequently victims of traumatic memories that arise without their knowledge. Conversely, they “lose” positive personal memories. Finally, depression would diminish the detailed character of memories in favor of generalities, vague memories“ develops Professor Seron.
“There are no methods to detect with certainty a false memory”
As the patients are persuaded to have lived the memories which they bring back, that the memory modifies more or less all the memories, it is difficult to recognize a false memory. “Except for delusional memories such as people reporting encounters with extraterrestrials, to my knowledge, there are no methods for detecting with certainty a false memory” admits Professor Xavier Seron. Photo albums, for example, can produce a memory that we think we remember when we only remember the photo. “The medical image is a lead explored to diagnose false memories” notes the neuropsychologist.
What to do in case of false memory syndrome?
“Hypnosis can help to find certain “hidden” details of memories that are too vague, but it produces more intrusions of false memories” remarks Xavier Seron. Ask the patient about the details (olfactory in particular) of his memory, about the people present, suggest view the event remembered can make it possible in certain cases to disentangle the true from the false. For Xavier Seron, “when you have the feeling that a memory could be false, it can be useful to engage in a series of verification procedures. Some doubts can be expressed by the person himself, others by those around him“.
Thanks to Xavier Seron, Pr in neuropsychology.
Source: False memories: between the normal and the pathological, Pascale Piolino, June 2006