6,7 These and related observations lend support to a view of memory that has its roots in the work of the British psychologist Bartlett,8 who argued, based on his experimental observations of mistakes and distortions in the recall of stories, that human memory is not a simple rote or reproductive system. By contrast, memory involves complex constructive processes that are sometimes prone to error: when we remember, we piece together fragments of stored information under the influence of our current knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. A good deal of progress has been made in understanding Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the constructive nature of memory since

the publication of Bartlett’s8 classic studies. That progress has begun to accelerate during recent years, as a result of research Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical using the methods of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience to elucidate both the cognitive and neural processes that underpin constructive memory.9-13 The purpose of the present paper is to consider recent ideas and evidence concerning three aspects of constructive memory for which significant new findings and ideas have emerged during the past few years. First, the article will consider the idea that certain kinds of memory distortions

reflect the operation of adaptive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cognitive processes — that is, processes that contribute to the efficient functioning of memory, but as a result of doing so, also produce distortions.14-17 EVP4593 in vitro Second, it will focus on recent research that is beginning to elucidate the nature of an adaptive cognitive process that has been linked to constructive

memory: imagining or simulating possible future Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical events.18,19 Third, it will consider whether it is possible to reliably distinguish Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical between true and false memories, and discuss some recent attempts to do so using functional neuroimaging techniques. Are memory distortions adaptive? Clinical instances of confabulation following brain damage, such as the case of Mrs B considered earlier, encourage the view that memory distortion reflects dysfunctional cognitive processing. And, indeed, it is known that various kinds of brain damage can result Amisulpride in an increased incidence of memory distortion. For example, during the 1990s Schacter et al studied a patient, BG, who suffered damage to his right frontal lobe after a stroke.20,21 BG showed a dramatic increase in the incidence of a memory error known as false recognition, where one claims to recognize as familiar an object, face, word, or scene that is in fact novel. Across a range of memory tests, BG falsely recognized — with high confidence — various kinds of novel stimuli. More recently, Moulin et al22 described a related syndrome in cases of dementia and diffuse temporal lobe pathology, that they termed déjà vecu, where patients claim to recollect past “experiences” that are actually novel.