title: Event-related potentials in alcoholic men: P3 amplitude reflects family history but not alcohol consumption.
abstract: Multilead event-related potentials (ERPs), elicited by auditory and visual stimuli requiring a button press response and by a startling noise requiring no response, were recorded from male alcoholics and age-matched male controls (26-60 years old). Single-trial analyses of blink responses to the startling stimuli indicated that alcoholics startle less frequently but with equivalent amplitude as the controls. In contrast, single-trial analyses of P3 indicated that alcoholics generate a P3 as often as controls, but that their individual P3s are smaller. Alcoholics who reported a positive family history of problem drinking had larger startle blink amplitudes and smaller auditory and visual P3s than did alcoholics who reported a negative family history. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to demonstrate that smaller P3s in family history positive alcoholics were independent of lifetime alcohol consumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, California.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pfefferbaum
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mathalon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001767:Blinking / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000295:instrumentation; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation