Alcohol, sex, age, and the hippocampus

Abstract

Chronic alcoholic male and female subjects (aged 19–67) were given a series of neuropsychological tests that had been administered previously to patients with discrete cortical excisions. In the first experiment, the alcoholic subjects were impaired relative to age-matched controls on only block design (from the WAIS) and the copy and recall of the Rey complex figure. Their performance on these tests was equivalent to that of patients with right temporal lobectomies. The subjects performed as well as controls on the WAIS; on various measures of verbal memory, spatial orientation, and verbal fluency; and on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. In the second experiment the subjects were given the same verbal and nonverbal memory tests, in addition to the Kimura recurring figures and the Corsi span + 1 digit and block tests. The latter tests have proven especially sensitive to hippocampal damage, and the alcoholic patients performed as poorly on the span + 1 tests as did patients with temporal lobectomies including the hippocampus. It is suggested that one effect of chronic alcohol abuse is hippocampal dysfunction. This conclusion is consistent with evidence of toxic effects of chronic alcohol intake on hippocampal neurons. © 1987, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.