Reduplicative paramnesia: Longitudinal neurobehavioral and neuroimaging analysis

Reduplicative paramnesia (RP) is a delusion in which the patient perceives familiar places, objects, or events to have been duplicated. The current ca se describes the development of RP in an 81-year-old male following a large right frontal lobe infarction. As the patient had been hospitalized previo usly with hemorrhagic contusions, neurologic, neuropsychological, and neuro imaging data were obtained both prior to and following RP onset. Psychophys iologic data were obtained following the development of the delusion. Both premorbidly and at follow-up, neuropsychological functioning was characteri zed by significant impairments of learning and memory and frontal-executive functions. Language and visuospatial skills and motor speed were intact bo th before and after RP onset. The case is described within the context of p reexisting theories of RP, and it is surmised that the delusion is secondar y to temporal-limbic-frontal dysfunction giving rise to a distorted sense o f familiarity and impaired ability to resolve the delusion via reasoning.