EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS ELICITED BY INFREQUENT NONTARGET STIMULI IN YOUNG-CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS - FAMILY HISTORY AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

This article analyses the visual and auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by infrequent non-target stimuli in young children wi th alcoholic fathers. The aim was to study the characteristics of the ERP waves specifically evcked by stimuli which capture the attention o f the subject in young ones at risk for alcoholism, and to assess the effect of sample factors which can modulate these characteristics, nam ely family history of alcoholism and gender. There were no differences related to risk for alcoholism on the auditory ERPs. However, males;I nd females with a multigenerational family history of alcoholism showe d significant differences on visual ERP latencies, although different waves were affected for each gender. Females showed a larger latency o f the visual frontal negative wave, Nc, and males showed a larger late ncy of the visual parietocentral P300 wave.