The recognition and encoding of faces by alcoholic Korsakoff and right hemisphere patients.

Alcoholic Korsakoffs, patients with right-hemisphere lesions, long-term alcoholics and normal control subjects were examined on three tests of facial memory and encoding. The Korsakoffs and patients with right-hemisphere lesions were impaired in their memory and simultaneous matching of unfamiliar faces. Their performance on a facial processing task indicated that they matched faces on the basis of superficial features such as paraphernalia and expression rather than the deeper configurational characteristics of faces. It is suggested that such superficial encoding may be partially responsible for these patients’ visuoperceptual and memory problems.