The appreciation of affect in alcoholic Korsakoff patients

The purpose of this study is to assess the appreciation of affective components of words in patients with insult to diencephalic and subcortical brain structures thought to subserve emotional expression. Six alcoholic Korsakoff patients were presented with triadic comparisons composed of names of birds, predators, and birds of prey. The principal findings revealed that normal control subjects associate birds of prey with both birds and predators, but Korsakoff patients associate the birds of prey significantly more often with birds than predators. Three-dimensional spatial representations of patients' associations revealed that normals cluster birds at one extreme of a dimension and predators at the other extreme, with birds of prey lying in an intermediate position. Korsakoff patients also clearly separate the birds from the predators and form tight clusters within each of these groups, but they associate the birds of prey noticeably with the birds. Moreover, Korsakoff patients displayed, on another dimension of the spatial representation, their difficulty appreciating that a word could possess multiple category memberships. The findings are discussed with respect to the multifaceted dementia seen in Korsakoff Syndrome, and are interpreted to provide guarded support for the claim that insult to particular diencephalic and subcortical brain structures interferes with the appreciation of affective material in particular circumstances.