Visuospatial declarative learning despite profound verbal declarative amnesia in Korsakoff's syndrome.
Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by severe amnesia. Although the presence of impairments in memory has long been acknowledged, there is a lack of knowledge about the precise characteristics of declarative memory capacities in order to implement memory rehabilitation. In this study, we investigated the extent to which patients diagnosed with KS have preserved declarative memory capacities in working memory, long-term memory encoding or long-term memory recall operations, and whether these capacities are most preserved for verbal or visuospatial content. The results of this study demonstrate that patients with KS have compromised declarative memory functioning on all memory indices. Performance was lowest for the encoding operation compared to the working memory and delayed recall operation. With respect to the content, visuospatial memory was relatively better preserved than verbal memory. All memory operations functioned suboptimally, although the most pronounced disturbance was found in verbal memory encoding. Based on the preserved declarative memory capacities in patients, visuospatial memory can form a more promising target for compensatory memory rehabilitation than verbal memory. It is therefore relevant to increase the number of spatial cues in memory rehabilitation for KS patients.
a Experimental Psychology , Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University , Utrecht , The Netherlands.|b Lelie Care Group, Slingedael Korsakoff Center , Rotterdam , The Netherlands.
Erik
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4441-0365
E
Oudman
a Experimental Psychology , Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University , Utrecht , The Netherlands.|b Lelie Care Group, Slingedael Korsakoff Center , Rotterdam , The Netherlands.
Albert
A
Postma
a Experimental Psychology , Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University , Utrecht , The Netherlands.|c University Medical Center Utrecht Department of Neurology , Brain Center Rudolf Magnus , Utrecht , The Netherlands.|d Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, and Center of Excellence for Rehabilitation Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht and De Hoogstraat Rehabilitation , Utrecht , The Netherlands.
Tanja C W
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6683-0267
TCW
Nijboer
b Lelie Care Group, Slingedael Korsakoff Center , Rotterdam , The Netherlands.
Jan W
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6328-4299
JW
Wijnia
a Experimental Psychology , Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University , Utrecht , The Netherlands.
Stefan
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5918-3521
S
Van der Stigchel
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000647:Amnesia / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020915:Korsakoff Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013028:Space Perception; D013067:Speech Perception; D014796:Visual Perception
Amnesia; Korsakoff for learning; Korsakoff’s syndrome; alcoholism; verbal memory; visuospatial memory