Emotional Perception and Memory in Alcoholism and Aging

The ability to identify and recognize emotional materials was studied in 10 male alcoholic Korsakoff patients, 27 male non-Korsakoff alcoholics, and 31 male nonalcoholic controls, across a wide age range (23 to 77 years). Stimulus materials were presented in two sensory modalities; the materials were photographs of faces expressing one of four emotions (happy, sad, angry, or neutral), and recordings of sentences with emotional intonations or semantic meanings expressing the same four emotions. Results of the experiments showed consistently severe deficits in emotional functions in the Korsakoff patients, but only minor alterations in the non-Korsakoff alcoholics. Older subjects, whether or not they had a history of alcoholism, also exhibited significant deficits on most of the tasks. Results of the study did not provide strong support for the premature aging hypothesis of alcoholism, which suggests that alcoholism accelerates aging, beginning either at the onset of heavy drinking early in adult life, or later in life after the normal manifestations of aging have begun to appear. Results are related to brain mechanisms in emotional perception and memory functions.     

Independent Familial Transmission of Alcoholism and Opiate Abuse

Interviews were conducted with 32 alcoholics, 72 opiate addicts, and 42 alcoholic-opiate addicts, and information was gained about the practices of their families. Alcoholism tended to cluster in families to a significant extent while, in contrast, alcoholism and opiate abuse did not occur in the same families significantly more or less often than expected by chance. Doubt is clearly cast on any unitary concept of addiction-proneness.     

Subtypes of Early Age Onset Alcoholism

Forty-three adolescents qualifying for a DSM-Ill-R diagnosis of alcohol abuse/dependence were classified according to the internalizing-externalizing behavior dimension. Two clusters were identified. The majority of subjects clustered into a group characterized by behavioral dyscontrol and hypophoria (history of suicide attempts) (cluster 2), whereas the other group was primarily featured by negative affect (cluster 1). Cluster 2 subjects demonstrated more severe alcohol and drug use-related problems, behavioral disturbances, and general psychopathology; lower prevalence of depressive disorders; and less severe anxiety disorders. These results, implicating two variants of adolescent alcohol abuse/dependence, suggest the need to tailor differential treatments to adolescents with alcohol abuse/dependence based on personality characteristics and clinical presentation.     

Alcoholism and Eating Disorders in Women of Fertile Age

Twenty consecutive alcoholic women aged 40 or under were compared with 20 age-matched bulimia nervosa patients and 17 age-matched controls using a semi-structured interview. Thirty-five per cent of the alcoholics had a previous major eating disorder. Fifty per cent of the bulimics either abused (40%) alcohol or used it to excess (10%). Weight variables were not different between alcoholics and bulimics but were significantly different front controls in both groups. Also alcoholism presented many years after the onset of bulimia. One hundred and twelve consecutive bulimia nervosa patients were studied by the same interview. Reported alcohol abuse and excess usage increased with age to 50% by the age of 35 and may be even higher by 40. A history of an eating disorder should alert physicians to the diagnosis of future alcoholism.     

Chronic Alcoholism in Males: Cognitive Deficit as a Function of Age of Onset, Age, and Duration

Performance on a cognitive rule-learning task was studied in detoxified alcoholics having early/late onset and short-/long-term drinking histories, and in matched nonalcoholic controls. There were pronounced cognitive deficits in early onset and long-term alcoholics. Impairment was severest in the early onset group, even though they were on the average 15 years younger than the late onset group. Early onset alcoholics were relatively more impaired on both the abstract and the verbal Shipley measures. This group also manifested a relative deficit in ability to show positive transfer across problems. Chronicity of alcoholism also interfered with acquisition of an abstract relationship between concrete stimulus attributes. Age negatively influenced ability to perform abstractions, but not commonly tested verbal skills. The findings suggest that an early onset of alcoholism, regardless of duration of problem drinking, is particularly predictive of cognitive impairment.     

Ageing and Memory: Mechanisms Underlying Age Differences in Performance

Abstract. Although it is widely believed that memory generally declines with age, in fact, age decrements occur for most, but not for all, types of memory. Age differences are always found for free and cued recall but are rarely found for picture recognition, implicit memory and measures of verbal ability. Understanding the conditions under which age differences occur and when they do not across memory domain is a challenging puzzle for cognitive ageing researchers. The hypothesis adopted here is that the magnitude of age-related decrements in memory function across different domains of memory can be accounted for by the amount of processing resource or mental effort required to encode and retrieve information. Different conceptualisations of processing resource are explored and supporting data are reviewed.     

Neuropsychological Effect of Chronic Alcoholism on Tactual-Spatial Performance and Memory in Males

To examine the hypothesis that the functioning of the right hemisphere is disrupted as a result of prolonged alcohol abuse, male middle-aged alcoholic patients and nonalcoholic controls were tested on the standard-Tactual Performance Test (TPT) from the Hatstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery or on a modified form of the TPT employing stimuli of low verbal codability. On the standard TPT, alcoholic patients were impaired relative to controls on timed performance and memory for TPT figures but not for location. Analysis of the pattern of timed performance indicated the presence of an alcohol-related deficit for the left hand; however, right-hand scores were not impaired in alcoholic patients. For the modified TPT, alcoholic patients were impaired relative to controls for level but not pattern of timed performance; memory for TPT figures was impaired in alcoholic patients although location scores were not. The standard and modified TPT were found to discriminate alcoholic and control subjects with equal accuracy. The results support the hypothesis that chronic alcoholism leads to a disruption in the normal functioning of the right cerebral hemisphere.     

Age Differences in Entropy: Primary Versus Secondary Memory

We report a spatial - memory scanning experiment that was used to measure age differences in entropy . A target grid consisting of four adjacent letters followed by the presentation of a single probe letter was presented on each trial. Half of the trials presented the probe stimulus in the same spatial position was the target letter (i.e., the probe letter was always a member ofthe positive set), and half of the trails transposed the target letter one, two , or three spaces of the right or left of the original target display position (i.e., different trials). The experiment involved blocks of primary - memory and secondary - memory tasks . Reaction - time and error - rate data , as well as entropy analyses and the fitting of an entropy model ( based on Allen , Kaufman , Smith , and Propper , in press ) to the empirical data indicated that older adults showed higher entropy levels than young adults. These results are interpreted in a "computa tional temperature" framework in which older adults' higher computa tional temperatures result in less efficient spatial , episodic memory functioning .     

Alcoholism: allostasis and beyond

Alcoholism is a chronic relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drinking, loss of control over intake, and impaired social and occupational function. Animal models have been developed for various stages of the alcohol addiction cycle with a focus on the motivational effects of withdrawal, craving, and protracted abstinence. A conceptual framework focused on allostatic changes in reward function that lead to excessive drinking provides a heuristic framework with which to identify the neurobiologic mechanisms involved in the development of alcoholism. Neuropharmacologic studies in animal models have provided evidence for specific neurochemical mechanisms in specific brain reward and stress circuits that become dysregulated during the development of alcohol dependence. The brain reward system implicated in the development of alcoholism comprises key elements of a basal forebrain macrostructure termed the extended amygdala that includes the central nucleus of the amygdala, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and a transition zone in the medial (shell) part of the nucleus accumbens. There are multiple neurotransmitter systems that converge on the extended amygdala that become dysregulated during the development of alcohol dependence, including gamma-aminobutyric acid, opioid peptides, glutamate, serotonin, and dopamine. In addition, the brain stress systems may contribute significantly to the allostatic state. During the development of alcohol dependence, corticotropin-releasing factor may be recruited, and the neuropeptide Y brain antistress system may be compromised. These changes in the reward and stress systems are hypothesized to maintain hedonic stability in an allostatic state, as opposed to a homeostatic state, and as such convey the vulnerability for relapse in recovering alcoholics. The allostatic model not only integrates molecular, cellular, and circuitry neuroadaptations in brain motivational systems produced by chronic alcohol ingestion with genetic vulnerability but also provides a key to translate advances in animal studies to the human condition.     

Alcoholism and Cocaine Addiction:

No abstract available for this article.     

Age Differences in Hindsight Bias: The Role of Episodic Memory and Inhibition

Background/Study Context: After learning an event’s outcome, people’s recollection of their former prediction of that event shifts towards the actual outcome. This hindsight bias (HB) phenomenon tends to be stronger in older compared with younger adults; however, it is unclear whether age-related changes in other cognitive abilities mediate this relationship.

Methods: Sixty-four younger adults (M_age = 20.1; range = 18–25) and 60 community-dwelling older adults (M_age = 72.5; range = 65–87) completed a memory design HB task. Two aspects of HB, its occurrence and magnitude, were examined. Multiple regression and mediation analyses were conducted to determine whether episodic memory and inhibition mediate age differences in the occurrence and magnitude of HB.

Results: Older adults exhibited a greater occurrence and magnitude of HB as compared with younger adults. The present findings revealed that episodic memory and inhibition mediated age-related increases in HB occurrence. Conversely, neither cognitive ability mediated age-related increases in HB magnitude.

Conclusion: Older adults’ susceptibility to the occurrence of HB is partly due to age-related declines in episodic memory and inhibition. Conversely, age differences in the magnitude of HB appear to be independent of episodic memory and inhibition. These findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms by which susceptibility to HB changes across the adult life span.     

Working and Episodic Memory in HIV Infection, Alcoholism, and Their Comorbidity: Baseline and 1-Year Follow-Up Examinations

Background:  Selective memory deficits occur in individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and those with chronic alcoholism, but the potential compounded effect of these conditions is seldom considered, despite the high prevalence of alcohol use disorders in HIV infection.
Methods:  Here, we examined component processes of working and episodic memory in HIV infection and chronic alcoholism (ALC) in 4 subject groups (HIV, ALC, HIV + ALC, and normal controls) at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Accuracy scores, response times, and rate of information processing were assessed with subtests of the computerized neuropsychological test battery, the MicroCog.
Results:  Although individuals with either HIV infection or alcoholism generally performed at normal levels, individuals comorbid with HIV infection and alcoholism were impaired relative to controls and to the single diagnosis groups on selective memory processes. Immediate episodic memory was impaired, whereas working memory remained intact. Ability to retain information over time was not impaired in the clinical groups. Little performance change between groups was detected over 1 year. Results could not be explained by amount of alcohol consumed over a lifetime, CD4 cell count, AIDS diagnosis, or HAART medication.
Conclusions:  This study provides behavioral support for adverse synergism of HIV infection and chronic alcoholism on brain function and is consistent with neuroimaging reports of compromised hippocampal and associated memory structures related to episodic memory processes in these 2 conditions.     

Overall Vigilance and Sustained Attention Decrements in Healthy Aging

Age differences in sustained attention were investigated using a high event rate digit-discrimination task at 6 levels of stimulus degradation (lasting 8.1 min each). Twenty-one young, 21 middle-aged, and 20 old healthy subjects were studied. Overall sensitivity (d) was equivalent in all groups. Although all subjects showed a sensitivity decrement over blocks, there were no age-related differences in sustained attention capacity. All subjects had larger decrements in d' over blocks at higher degradation levels. However, the performance decrement at higher degradation levels was equivalent in all groups, indicating similar decrement rates in sensitivity with increasing demands on effortful processing. These results indicate that overall levels of vigilance and the ability to sustain attention over time are equivalent in all groups under conditions requiring both automatic (low-degradation) and effortful (high-degradation) stimulus processing.     

Evening Classes on Alcoholism: An Experiment in Alcoholism Education

The Regional Council on Alcoholism has a role to play in educating the general public about alcoholism. Evening classes on alcoholism provide a means of reaching both the general public and the person involved professionally with problems of alcoholism. Appropriate involvement of newspapers and television can increase the impact of such classes. There is a need to obtain objective measurement of the success of such a venture.     

Alcoholism in Women:

Alcoholism in women is a problem which is receiving increasing recognition from researchers and practitioners. This paper reviews the growing research findings on alcoholic women and explains how alcoholism in women differs from that in men, and how alcoholic women differ from each other. Treatment implications for dealing with alcoholic women are discussed.