DELAYED P3A IN ABSTINENT ELDERLY MALE CHRONIC-ALCOHOLICS

Significant central nervous system toxicity in frontal brain regions h as been demonstrated with chronic alcohol consumption both on autopsy and using neuropsychological testing. This study examined the latency of an objective and reproducible brain event-related potential measure of frontal cortex function in chronic elderly male alcoholics who wer e abstinent 3 months-2 years, a patient group in whom the central nerv ous system effects of chronic alcohol abuse are thought to be largest and most persistent. We examined the latency of the P3A event-related potential component, which reflects a frontal maximum orienting respon se to novel stimuli. Twelve elderly abstinent chronic alcoholic males and 11 elderly male controls were studied in an auditory and a visual paradigm, each of which included target, nontarget, and novel rare non target conditions. In both modalities, the P3A response to the novel r are nontarget stimuli was significantly delayed in the chronic alcohol ics. P3B delays to the target stimuli were also present in the alcohol ics, with the P3A and P3B effects being independent of each other. For both P3A and P3B, the effects were larger and more consistent in the visual compared with the auditory modality. Our conclusions are as fol lows: (1) both P3A and P3B latency delays are evident in elderly absti nent chronic alcoholics; (2) separate mechanisms are responsible for t hese effects; (3) these effects are more sensitively detected in the v isual versus the auditory modality; and (4) delayed P3A latency may be an objective and reproducible index of the frontal cortex effects of chronic alcohol abuse.