Abstract
Background: Substantial evidence indicates that alcoholism is biologically mediated
by a genetic predisposition. As the decreased P300 (P3b) event-related brain potential
component does not recover with prolonged abstinence, it is unlikely to be related
to drinking history but is more likely to be genetically influenced. This is supported
by findings that P3b amplitudes are reduced in subjects at high-risk compared to low-risk
for alcoholism. Although there are few studies of P3a in HR subjects, lower P3a amplitudes
have been reported with a novel nontarget stimulus paradigm, as well as with a difficult
three-stimulus visual paradigm. Using a similar three-tone auditory paradigm in which
the discriminability between the target and standard tone is difficult, the P3a component
can also be reliably elicited with a rare nontarget perceptually distinct stimulus.
This technique was employed in young adult subjects at low-risk and high-risk for
alcoholism.
Methods: A total of 17 low-risk and 24 high-risk male subjects were employed as subjects
in an auditory paradigm that yielded a large amplitude P3a with a centro-frontal maximum
to the nontarget and a robust low amplitude prolonged P3b with a parietal maximum
amplitude to the target stimulus. Current source density maps were derived to assess
topographic differences between low-risk and high-risk subjects.
Results: The high-risk group manifested significantly lower P3a amplitudes than the
low-risk group at the frontal electrodes to rare nontarget stimuli. High-risk subjects
also demonstrated a more disorganized current source density map for P3a compared
to low-risk subjects.
Conclusions: The reduction of P3a in the high-risk group may be due to cortical dysfunction
including the frontal and prefrontal cortex. The lower P3a amplitude coupled with
more disorganized current source density maps suggest inefficient brain functioning
in high-risk subjects.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Neuropsychological deficits are correlated with frontal hypometabolism in positron emission tomography studies of older alcoholic patients.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1993; 17: 205-210
- Heritability of event-related brain potentials in families with a history of alcoholism.Neuropsychiatr Genet. 1999; 88: 383-390
- American Electroencephalographic Society guidelines for standard electrode position nomenclature.J Clin Neurophysiol. 1991; 8: 200-202
- What is inherited in the predisposition toward alcoholism? A proposed model.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1999; 23: 1125-1135
- Event-related potentials in boys at risk for alcoholism.Science. 1984; 225: 1483-1486
- Quantitative trait loci analysis of human event-related brain potentials.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1998; 108: 244-250
- Neuroradiological and neurophysiological evidence of brain deficits in chronic alcoholics.Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1980; 62: 3-13
- P3 in young boys as a predictor of adolescent substance abuse.Alcohol. 1993; 10: 69-76
- Slow potentials of the cerebral cortex and behavior.Physiol Rev. 1990; 70: 1-41
- A new semi-structured psychiatric interview for use in genetic linkage studies.J Stud Alcohol. 1994; 55: 149-158
- Neurogenetic adaptive mechanisms in alcoholism.Science. 1987; 236: 410-416
- Inheritance of alcohol abuse.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1981; 38: 861-868
- Childhood personality predicts alcohol abuse in young adults.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1988; 12: 494-505
- Neurophysiological correlates of response production and inhibition in alcoholics.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1997; 21: 1398-1406
- Neurophysiological correlates of response production and inhibition in individuals at risk to develop alcoholism.Biol Psychiatry. 1997; 42: 57-67
- P3a, perceptual distinctiveness, and stimulus modality.Cogn Brain Res. 1998; 7: 41-48
- P3a and P3b from typical auditory and visual stimuli.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1999; 110: 24-30
- Stimulus novelty, task relevance and the visual evoked potential in man.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1975; 39: 131-143
- Brain potentials associated with voluntary manual tracking.Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1984; 425: 450-464
- P300 in serial tasks.in: Kornhuber H.H Deecke L Motivation, Motor and Sensory Processes of the Brain. Elsevier, Amsterdam1980: 682-686
- Is the P300 component a manifestation of context updating?.Behav Brain Sci. 1988; 11: 357-374
- Cognitive brain potentials and regional cerebral blood flow equivalents during two- and three-sound auditory “oddball tasks”.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1995; 95: 434-443
- P300 from families.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1994; 92: 369-372
- Threshold regulation.J Psychophysiol. 1987; 1: 314-331
- Age effects on event related potentials in a selective attention task.J Gerontol. 1979; 34: 388-395
- The relationship between P300 amplitude and regional gray matter volumes depends on the attentional system engaged.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophyisiol. 1994; 90: 214-228
- ERP amplitude and scalp distribution to target and novel events.Cogn Brain Res. 1994; 2: 49-63
- Age-related changes in scalp topography to novel and target stimuli.Psychophysiology. 1993; 30: 383-396
- Seeing through the skull.Brain Topogr. 1991; 4: 125-131
- Positron emission tomographic studies of cerebral benzodiazepine-receptor binding in chronic alcoholics.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1996; 40: 163-171
- Alcoholism and hereditary.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1979; 36: 57-61
- Auditory P3a assessment of male alcoholics.Biol Psychiatry. 2000; 48: 276-286
Halgren E, Stapleton JM, Smith M, Altafullah I (1986): Generators of the human scalp P3(s). In: Cracco RQ, Bodis-Wollner I, editors. Evoked Potentials. New York: Alan Liss, 269–286.
- Intaracerebral potentials to rare target and distracter auditory and visual stimuli. I. Superior temporal plane and parietal lobe.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1995; 94: 191-220
- Reduced P300 amplitude in relation to family history of alcoholism and antisocial personality disorder among young men at risk for alcoholism.Alcohol. 1993; 2: 95-100
- Assessment of prepubertal and post pubertal boys and girls at risk for developing alcoholism with P300 from a visual discrimination task.J Stud Alcohol. 1993; 54: 350-358
- Identifying psychophysiological risk for psychopathology.Psychophysiology. 1998; 35: 621-637
- Reduced cerebral grey matter observed in alcoholics using magnetic resonance imaging.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1991; 15: 418-427
- On the neural generators of the P300 component of the event-related potential.Psychophysiology. 1993; 30: 90-97
- On how P300 amplitude varies with the utility of the eliciting stimuli.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1978; 44: 424-437
- Stimulus context determines P3a and P3b.Psychophysiology. 1998; 35: 23-33
- P300 event-related potential heritability in monozygotic and dizygotic twins.Psychophysiology. 1997; 34: 47-58
- Decreased response to novel stimuli after prefrontal lesions in man.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1984; 59: 9-20
- Neural mechanisms of event-related potentials from lesion studies.in: Rohrbaugh J Parasuraman R Johnson R Event-Related Brain Potentials Basic Issue and Applications. Oxford Press, New York1990: 3-18
- Contribution of human hippocampal region to novelty detection.Nature. 1996; 383: 256-259
- Prefrontal cortex gating of auditory transmission in humans.Brain Res. 1989; 504: 338-342
Kupferman I (1995): Cognition and the cortex. In: Kandall ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM, editors. Essentials of Neural Science and Behavior. Stamford, CT: Appleton & Lange, pp 347–363.
Law SK (1991): Spline generated surface Laplacians for improving spatial resolution in electroencephalography. Doctoral dissertation, Tulane University, New Orleans.
- Quantitative representation of the upper surface of human head.Brain Topogr. 1991; 3: 365-371
- Habituation of the components of the AEP to stimuli of different intensities.in: Kimmel H.D van Olst E.H Orlebeke J.F The Orienting Reflex in Humans. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ1978: 123-128
- Infrequent events transiently activate human prefrontal and parietal cortex as measured by functional MRI.J Neurophysiol. 1997; 77: 1630-1634
- Alcoholic fathers and their sons.in: Cloninger C.R Begleiter H Genetics and Biology of Alcoholism. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY1990: 159-174
- The Spline-Laplacian in clinical neurophysiology.J Clin Neurophysiol. 1991; 8: 397-413
- Correlates of increased risk for alcoholism in young men.Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 1986; 10: 211-218
- Heritable features of the auditory oddball event-related potential.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1994; 92: 115-125
- Mapping of scalp potentials by surface spline interpolation.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1987; 66: 75-81
- Scalp current density mapping.IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 1987; 34: 283-287
- Event-related potentials in alcoholic men.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1991; 15: 839-850
- Frontal lobe volume loss observed with magnetic resonance imaging in older chronic alcoholics.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1997; 21: 521-529
- P300, alcoholism heritability, and stimulus modality.Alcohol. 1999; 17: 149-156
- P300 from identical twins.Neuropsychologia. 1987; 25: 299-304
- Meta-analysis of P300 amplitude from males at risk for alcoholism.Psychol Bull. 1994; 115: 55-73
- P300 from amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal lesions.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1993; 86: 408-417
- Human brain electrophysiology and alcoholism.in: Tarter R Thiel D.V Alcohol and the Brain. Plenum Press, New York1985: 139-182
- Event-related potentials in individuals at risk for alcoholism.Alcohol. 1990; 7: 465-469
- Effects of alcohol on electrophysiological activity of the brain.in: Begleiter H Kissin B Alcohol and Alcoholism, Volume 2 The Pharmacology of Alcohol and Alcohol Dependence. Oxford University Press, New York1996: 207-247
- Genetic basis of event-related potentials and their relationship to alcoholism and alcohol use.J Clin Neurophysiol. 1998; 15: 44-57
- Event-related brain potentials to high incentive stimuli in abstinent alcoholics.Alcohol. 1987; 4: 283-287
- The N2 component of the event-related brain potential in abstinent alcoholics.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1987; 66: 121-131
- Amplitude of visual P3 event-related potential as a phenotypic marker for a predisposition to alcoholism.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1998; 22: 1317-1323
- Frontal and inferior temporal cortical activity in visual target detection.Brain Topogr. 1996; 9: 3-14
- A simple auditory oddball task in young adult males at high risk for alcoholism.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1996; 20: 9-15
- Event-related potential evidence of dysfunction in automatic processing in abstinent alcoholics.Biol Psychiatry. 1993; 33: 594-601
- Association cortex potentials and reaction time in auditory discrimination.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1972; 33: 547-555
- Mapping P300 waves onto inhibition.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1994; 92: 44-55
- Slow Cortical Potentials and Behaviour. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Baltimore1989
- Probing the functional brain state during P300-evocation.J Psychophysiol. 1992; 6: 175-184
- Visual P3a in males at high risk for alcoholism.Biol Psychiatry. 1999; 46: 281-291
- Visual P3a in male alcoholics and controls.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1999; 23: 582-591
Ruchkin DS, Sutton S (1978): Equivocation and P300 amplitude. In: Multidisciplinary perspectives in event-related brain potential research. Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Event-Related Slow Potentials of the Brain, Hendersonville, NC. 175–177.
- Alcoholism and genetics.Biol Psychiatry. 1980; 15: 437-447
- Memory and frontal lobe function.in: Gazzaniga M.S The Cognitive Neurosciences. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA1995: 803-815
- Regulation of slow potential shifts in nucleus reticularis thalami by mesencephalic reticular formation and the frontal granular cortex.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1976; 40: 288-296
- The intracranial topography of the P3 event-related potential elicited during auditory oddball.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1990; 76: 235-248
- Two varieties of long-latency positive waves evoked by unpredictable auditory stimuli in man.Electroencephlaogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1975; 38: 387-401
- A bootstrap method to compare the shapes of two scalp fields.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1996; 100: 25-32
- N250 latency and decision time.Bull Psychonomic Soc. 1980; 15: 365-368
- The Genetics of Electrophysiological Indices of Brain Activity. Universiteit Van Amsterdam, Amsterdam1996
- P3 scalp topography to target and novel visual stimuli in children of alcoholics.Alcohol. 1998; 15: 119-136
- Subcortical correlates of the P300 potential complex in man to auditory stimuli.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1986; 64: 199-210
Verleger RG (1988): Event-related potentials and cognition: A critique of the context updating hypothesis and an alternative interpretation of P3. Behav Brain Sci 11:343–356.
- Local polynomial estimate of surface Laplacian.Brain Topogr. 1999; 12: 19-29
- Event-related potentials in alcoholic fathers and their sons.Alcohol. 1991; 8: 321-327
- An atypical neurocognitive profile in alcoholic fathers and their sons.J Stud Alcohol. 1988; 149: 240-244
- Electrophysiological evidence of increased distractibility after dorsolateral prefrontal regions.Neurology. 1986; 36: 212-216
- Probing the time-course of the auditory oddball P3 with secondary reaction time.Psychophysiology. 1991; 28: 609-618
- Gating of somatosensory inputs by human prefrontal cortex.Brain Res. 1990; 521: 281-288
- Anterior and posterior association cortex contributions to the somatosensory P300.J Neurosci. 1991; 11: 2039-2054
- A subcortical correlate of P300 in man.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1984; 59: 72-76
- Selective regulation of thalamic sensory relay nuclei by nucleus reticularis thalami.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1976; 41: 476-482
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
July 28,
2000
Received in revised form:
July 27,
2000
Received:
January 22,
2000
Identification
Copyright
© 2001 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
