Seeing life through rose-colored spectacles: Autobiographical memory as experienced in Korsakoff's syndrome

We investigated whether patients with Korsakjoff's Sybdrome (KS) would demonstrate a discrepancy between (low) autobiographical specificity and (high) sense of reliving. We invited 20 KS patients and 24 controls to retrieve personal memories. After memory retrieval, they were invited to rate subjective characteristics of their recall (e.g., reliving, travel in time, remembering, realness). Besides this rating, we analyzed memories objectively with regard to specificity. Analysis demonstrated poorer sense of reliving and memory specificity in KS patients than in controls. Critically, a discrepancy (i.e., higher level of sense of reliving than of specificity) was observed in KS participants but not in controls. We propose a hypothesis of “genuine consciousness experience” in which the discrepancy between sense of reliving and specificity mirrors how KS patients can benefit from an authentic experience of the past despite compromise in their autobiographical recall.