Errorless learning of emotional facial expressions in Korsakoff’s syndrome

Abstract

Korsakoff’s syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder that is caused by thiamine (vitamin B) deficiency, which is often the result of alcoholism. Korsakoff’s syndrome patients often suffer from impaired emotional facial recognition. As a consequence, interpersonal difficulties arise between patients but also between patients and their caregivers. Up until now, no research has been conducted on the (re)learning of emotional facial expressions by Korsakoff’s syndrome patients. Therefore, the present study investigated whether KS patients could (re)learn emotional recognition. Errorless learning seemed like an effective teaching strategy in Korsakoff’s syndrome, as it is based on the intact implicit memory functioning and already has proven its effectiveness in several other studies regarding Korsakoff’s syndrome patients. To compare the effectiveness of errorless learning, another patient group received an errorful training program. The aim of the present study was to investigate if Korsakoff’s syndrome patients could (re)learn the recognition of emotional facial expressions of others and to compare the effectiveness of errorless learning with errorful learning in the acquisition of this ability. The relevance of the present study is to reduce the interpersonal difficulties that Korsakoff’s syndrome patients encounter due to the mislabeling of emotional facial expressions of others. .After completing all sessions, errorless learning did not improve the performance on the recognition of emotional facial expressions. In contrast, errorful learning only showed improved performance on the training sessions, suggesting that attention is important to learn in Korsakoff’s syndrome patients.