[Uniform processing of sensory-motor information and match/mismatch process impairment in man caused by chronic palm...

The late components of the event-related potential (ERP) were recorded during a Go/No-Go task from 21 alcoholics (with chronic palm alcohol intoxication) divided in 3 groups of seven (abstinent alcoholics men, abstinent alcoholic women, and alcoholic men) and 14 normal adult volunteers divided into 2 groups (control men, and control women). The subjects were submitted to paired auditory stimuli and were assigned to detect and respond by pressing a push button to a rarely occurring imperative stimulus (20%). Latency of the late components of the ERP elicited both by target and standard imperative stimuli was significantly delayed in three alcoholic groups compared to the controls. The amplitude of P200 and P300 components was also decreased in alcoholics, which displayed the same middle line scalp distribution of P300 amplitudes regardless of the imperative stimulus class: target or standard. These findings agree with the supposition that match/mismatch processes are impaired in subjects with chronic palm alcohol intoxication, and that they have difficulties in evaluating the significance of stimuli.