WINEGLASS CONFABULATIONS AMONG BRAIN-DAMAGED ALCOHOLICS ON THE WECHSLER MEMORY SCALE REVISED VISUAL REPRODUCTION SUBTEST

Confabulation is a clinically well-documented accompaniment of selecti ve types of memory impairment, especially in brain-damaged alcoholics. This study reports specific occurrences of visual confabulation consi sting of spontaneous alterations of Card D of the Visual Reproduction subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. The resemblance of a win eglass was fashioned by a 90-degree rotation into a ''bowl and stem'', observed in six of 30 brain-damaged alcoholics. There were no such in stances in 132 other patients, including alcoholic controls, those wit h Parkinson's Disease, temporal lobe epileptics (pre-or postsurgery), and those with neurotoxic exposure. When asked, the subjects who ident ified the figure as a wineglass or similar drinking instrument reporte d that they had drawn it as originally shown to them. ''Wineglass'' co nfabulators had shorter periods of abstinence, longer drinking histori es and lower intellectual functioning than their brain-damaged peers o r an alcoholic control group. These findings lend support for the asso ciation of alcohol-related confabulation with visual, as well as previ ously-documented verbal material among brain-damaged alcoholics.