Temporal recovery of auditory evoked potentials in individuals at risk for alcoholism

The present investigation examined auditory evoked potential (AEP) recovery functions in both high-risk (HR, N = 23, mean = 22.3) and low-risk (LR, N = 27, mean = 23.0) males. A series of binaural auditory stimuli, with randomly interposed interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 0.5, 1.0, and 10.0 s, were used to elicit the N1 and P2 components of the AEP. Scalp potentials were recorded from the 19 electrodes comprising the 10/20 International System. For purposes of statistical analysis, five electrode groups were created: frontal (F), central (C), parietal (P), occipital (O), and temporal (T). The results of within-group MANOVA demonstrated that in both LR and HR individuals, increases in the ISI produced significant N1 and P2 amplitude increases without significant latency differences. These amplitude increases occurred primarily in the F and C regions. However, the results of between-group MANOVA indicated that there were no differences in the recovery functions of the two risk groups. Our results indicate that in both LR and HR individuals, recovery functions are responsive to changes in increasing ISI. However, they did not effectively discriminate between risk groups. It is speculated that risk group differences may be apparent with the use of an ethanol challenge.