The research program described in the current application represents the continuation of a comprehensive experimental analysis of deficits resulting from alcohol-related human brain damage. Because clinical observations have long implicated affective (emotional) and conative (motivational) changes in abstinent alcoholics, a primary aim of the newly proposed studies is to provide a detailed account of the nature of these changes. A secondary aim of the proposed research is to evaluate """"""""premature aging"""""""" hypotheses of alcoholism, particularly as they relate to emotional and motivational functions. Thus, using procedures that are designed to tap specifically into emotional and motivational functions, the proposed research will examine the ways in which the behavioral consequences of aging and alcoholism are parallel, divergent, or interactive. The proposed experiments will enlist the participation of abstinent male research subjects ranging in age from 21 to 75 years. The principal experimental groups will have had a history of chronic alcohol abuse, and will include alcoholic Korsakoff patients. Patterns and levels of performances by the alcoholic groups will be compared to those of age-matched nonalcoholic subjects. Patients with right hemisphere damage will provide the necessary control comparisons for emotional changes linked directly to focal brain damage. Behavioral paradigms to be employed are designed to measure (a) cortical, interhemispheric, and limbic system contributions to affective judgment and perception, and (b) aspects of the association of reinforcement contingencies with stimulus parameters, as controlled primarily by the limbic system. It is expected that results of the proposed studies will show clear evidence of affective and conative changes in alcoholics (most notably in the Korsakoff patients), but that these changes will not be conspicuous in aging populations uncomplicated by alcoholism. By contrast, certain aspects of perceptual functioning will be compromised by aging, whether or not a history of alcohol abuse exists.
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