Hirstein draws heavily on the interaction between his philosophical training and his clinical experience in his 2005 book Brain Fiction to develop a comprehensive epistemic theory of the neural basis of confabulation, and argues that prefrontal executive processes fail to correct false memories or perceptions, resulting in a confabulation. Thus confabulation is a result of two errors, which may be caused by two separate brain lesions. First there is an error in memory or perception, and second, prefrontal executive processes fail to correct the error.
Mindmelding hypothesis
In his 2012 book, Mindmelding: Consciousness, Neuroscience, and the Mind's Privacy, Hirstein argues that a significant block to solving the mind–body problem can be removed if we allow that it is possible for one person to directly experience the conscious mind of another. The vast majority of philosophers and scientists writing about consciousness believe that this is impossible, but this would mean that conscious brain states are different from all other physical states, which can be known about by multiple persons. This creates a block to understanding our minds as physical systems. Hirstein describes how "mindmelding" could be achieved by connecting person A's prefrontal lobes to person B's posterior cortex, which would in effect connect person A's sense of self to person B's conscious thoughts and sensations.
Cognitive Science: An Introduction to Mind and Brain, New York & London: Routledge, 2006, ISBN9780415221016(with Daniel Kolak, Peter Mandik, and Jonathan Waskan){{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Mindmelding: Consciousness, Neuroscience, and the Mind's Privacy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN9780199231904
Responsible Brains: Neuroscience, Law, and Human Culpability, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2018, ISBN9780262038782(with Katrina L. Sifferd and Tyler K. Fagan){{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)