Brokate B, Hildebrandt H, Eling P, Fichtner H, Runge K, Timm C
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Municipal Hospital of Bremen, Germany.
Neuropsychology. 2003 Jul;17(3):420-8. doi: 10.1037/0894-4105.17.3.420.
The effect of long-term heavy alcohol consumption on brain functions is still under debate. The authors investigated a sample of 17 Korsakoff amnesics, 23 alcoholics without Korsakoff's syndrome, and 21 controls with peripheral nerve diseases, matched for intelligence and education. Executive functions were examined for word fluency, the modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, an alternate response task, and an "n-back" working memory task. Korsakoff amnesics, but not alcoholics, showed a marked memory impairment. They also scored lower in each of the executive tasks-the alcoholics only in the alternate response task. This task also correlated with the years of the alcohol dependency. First, the authors conclude that Korsakoff's syndrome is associated not only with a memory impairment but also with a global executive deficit. Second, the decline in the ability to alternate between different responses argues for a restricted neurotoxic effect of alcohol on some frontal lobe areas.
长期大量饮酒对脑功能的影响仍存在争议。作者对17名柯萨科夫遗忘症患者、23名无柯萨科夫综合征的酗酒者以及21名患有周围神经疾病的对照者进行了调查，这些对照者在智力和教育程度方面进行了匹配。通过词汇流畅性、改良威斯康星卡片分类测验、交替反应任务和“n-back”工作记忆任务来检测执行功能。柯萨科夫遗忘症患者（而非酗酒者）表现出明显的记忆障碍。他们在各项执行任务中的得分也较低——酗酒者仅在交替反应任务中得分较低。这项任务还与酒精依赖年限相关。首先，作者得出结论，柯萨科夫综合征不仅与记忆障碍有关，还与整体执行功能缺陷有关。其次，在不同反应之间进行交替的能力下降表明酒精对某些额叶区域具有局限性神经毒性作用。
