Because deficit patterns in chronic alcoholics have been shown to mimic some cognitive changes in older nonalcoholics, researchers have proposed that the model also supports the accelerated aging hypothesis. However, evidence supporting the diffuse brain dysfunction model does not consistently meet the specific predictions of the premature aging hypothesis. The model’s primary weakness is that it cannot be disproved easily because it does not make differential predictions about the performance of alcoholics and normal control subjects on different kinds of cognitive-functioning tests. In comparison with the right hemisphere model, for example, the model suggesting diffuse brain damage does not link specific impairments with distinct regions of brain damage.
