Memory impairment is relatively common in dementia, but Australian doctors have reported an unusual case of recollective confabulation coupled with the rare phenomenon known as déjà vécu. 

Unlike déjà vu — the fleeting sensation of false familiarity that many will have experienced at least once in their lifetimes — déjà vécu describes a persistent, false perception that novel encounters have actually occurred before. 

Neurologists from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital have described a patient in his 80s with gradual onset of recollective confabulation but no other delusion-like symptoms or hallucinations. 

For instance, the elderly man — who lived alone and was independent — kept thinking his ebook reader was malfunctioning because it seemed to show the same content over and over.