Visual and Auditory Spatial and Nonspatial Delayed-Response Performance by Korsakoff and Non-Korsakoff Alcoholic and Aging Individuals

Thirty-six male alcoholics (13 with Korsakoff's syndrome) and 24 controls performed visual and auditory delayed-response tasks sensitive to prefrontal cortical damage in nonhuman primates. Korsakoff patients were consistently impaired compared with other subjects. Impairments by Korsakoff patie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 1992-08, Vol.106 (4), p.613-622
Main Authors: Oscar-Berman, Marlene, Hutner, Nancy, Bonner, Robert T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Age Differences
Age Factors
Aging
Alcohol Amnestic Disorder - physiopathology
Alcohol Amnestic Disorder - psychology
Alcoholism
Attention - physiology
Auditory Perception
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Brain Damage
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Ability
Color Perception - physiology
Ears & hearing
Eyes & eyesight
Frontal Lobe
Frontal Lobe - physiopathology
Human
Humans
Korsakoff Syndrome
Medical sciences
Mental Recall - physiology
Military Veterans
Orientation - physiology
Pitch Perception - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reaction Time - physiology
Reference Values
Social research
Sound Localization - physiology
Spatial Organization
Stimulus Duration
Visual Perception
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Summary:Thirty-six male alcoholics (13 with Korsakoff's syndrome) and 24 controls performed visual and auditory delayed-response tasks sensitive to prefrontal cortical damage in nonhuman primates. Korsakoff patients were consistently impaired compared with other subjects. Impairments by Korsakoff patients were evident when demands were placed on visual processing time (brief stimulus durations), and the deficits became exaggerated with increased demands on short-term memory. Under the most difficult experimental conditions, controls and non-Korsakoff alcoholics who were over 50 years old performed somewhat worse compared with younger groups 27-49 years old. Age-linked deficits were mild compared with Korsakoffs' deficits, and age-group differences disappeared with easier task demands. The results implicate cortical pathology in alcoholism and normal chronological aging and suggest that prefrontal damage accompanies alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.106.4.613