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 pr esence/absence of an alcoholic family history or a personal history of antisocial personality disorder. ERPs were elicited by a visual oddba ll task in which the target was presented more frequently than the non target, in order to elicit impulsive or perseverative responding. Anal yses of N200 and P300 revealed no group differences in the nontarget r esponse. However, analyses of the target response revealed a significa ntly smaller P300 in the antisocial personality (ASP)+ group compared with the ASP- group. The P300 decrement was limited to frontal electro de sites and is interpreted as indicating the presence of subtle anter ior brain dysfunction among Asp subjects.