Implausible future events in a confabulating patient with an anterior communicating artery aneurysm

Patient MW, a known confabulator, and healthy age-matched controls produced past and future events. Events were judged on emotional valence and plausibility characteristics. No differences in valence were found between MW and controls, although a positive emotional bias toward the future was observed. Strikingly, MW produced confabulations about future events that were significantly more implausible than those produced by healthy controls whereas MW and healthy controls produced past events comparable in plausibility. A neurocognitive explanation is offered based on differences between remembering and imagining. Possible implications of this single case in relation to confabulation and mental time travel are discussed.