03-23-2014, 03:16 PM
The affected patients have impaired utilization of glucose by the brain, and some areas of the brain are more sensitive to damage, including the hippocampus, which controls short-term memory. The confabulation is a defense mechanism in which patients with severe short-term memory loss make up explanations, without knowing it, that link together the bits of information they do remember. Because the short-term memory is impaired, they can’t remember the explanation they gave to the person they talked to 15 minutes before.