Remote and autobiographical memory, temporal context memory and frontal atrophy in Korsakoff and Alzheimer patients.

Korsakoff and Alzheimer patients were assessed on tests of remote, autobiographical, and temporal context memory. On the remote memory tests, both groups showed a temporal gradient across all the measures used, although the gradient was significantly steeper in the Korsakoff group. Both groups also showed a marked improvement in performance on recognition testing. Correlations with an anterograde "memory quotient" were relatively low, and in the Korsakoff group, there was evidence of partial independence between memory for personal events/facts and memory for public events/facts. Better performance within the Korsakoff group in the recall of early memories was correlated with higher intelligence, whereas worse performance for recent memories was associated with a longer duration of the disorder. Both patient groups were impaired at tests of retrospective and anterograde temporal context memory, but there was no association with a neuroradiological measure of frontal atrophy and only a very weak correlation with tests of frontal function. It is concluded that both patient groups show a retrieval deficit in remote memory, that a superimposed anterograde impairment produces the steeper temporal gradient in Korsakoff patients, and that the deficit in temporal context memory is unlikely to be related to frontal atrophy or frontal dysfunction.