title: No electrocortical evidence of automatic mismatch dysfunction in children of alcoholics.
abstract: The mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential (ERP) component is an automatic, attention-independent brain response to auditory stimulus change, which has been reported to be smaller in alcoholics relative to nonalcoholic controls. To determine whether MMN decrements might be a trait marker of alcoholism that is also present in nonalcoholic individuals at high risk for developing alcoholism, we investigated MMN in 9- to 18-year-old children of alcoholics (n = 20) and control children (n = 20) in three different stimulus conditions using a passive auditory oddball paradigm. There were no statistically significant between-group differences observed in amplitude, scalp topography, and peak latency of MMN. These findings, if replicated, suggest that reported MMN decrements in alcoholics most likely represent a state marker, and not a trait marker, of alcoholism. Also, inasmuch as another ERP component, the P300, is attention-dependent and reported to be smaller in children of alcoholics, the present results implicate that deviations in attentive, but not in automatic, information processing are associated with alcoholism vulnerability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: van der Stelt
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Gunning
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Snel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kok
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology