Hypothalamic amnesia with spontaneous confabulations: A clinicopathologic study

Previous studies demonstrated that patients producing spontaneous confabula tions fail to suppress currently irrelevant memory traces and have anterior limbic lesions, particularly involving the orbitofrontal cortex or the bas al forebrain. Here, a woman is described who had sarcoidosis damaging the m edial hypothalamus and endocrine dysfunction, and a severe memory failure c haracterized by spontaneous confabulation, disorientation, and severely imp aired free recall with preserved recognition. Isolated hypothalamic damage may produce the same type of memory disorder as orbitofrontal damage.