Frontal P300 decrements in antisocial personality disorder

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 83, 21- to 25-year-old nonalcoholic men varying in alcoholism vulnerability due to the presence/absence of an alcoholic family history or a personal history of antisocial personality disorder. ERPs were elicited by a visual oddball task in which the target was presented more frequently than the nontarget, in order to elicit impulsive or perseverative responding. Analyses of N200 and P300 revealed no group differences in the nontarget response. However, analyses of the target response revealed a significantly smaller P300 in the antisocial personality (ASP)+ group compared with the ASP- groups. The P300 decrement was limited to frontal electrode sites and is interpreted as indicating the presence of subtle anterior brain dysfunction among ASP+ subjects.