NO ELECTROCORTICAL EVIDENCE OF AUTOMATIC MISMATCH DYSFUNCTION IN CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS

The mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential (ERP) component is an automatic, attention-independent brain response to auditory stim ulus change, which has been reported to be smaller in alcoholics relat ive to nonalcoholic controls. To determine whether MMN decrements migh t be a trait marker of alcoholism that is also present in nonalcoholic individuals at high risk for developing alcoholism, we investigated M MN in 9- to 18-year-old children of alcoholics (n = 20) and control ch ildren (n = 20) in three different stimulus conditions using a passive auditory oddball paradigm. There were no statistically significant be tween-group differences observed in amplitude, scalp topography, and p eak latency of MMN. These findings, if replicated, suggest that report ed MMN decrements in alcoholics most likely represent a state marker, and not a trait marker, of alcoholism. Also, inasmuch as another ERP c omponent, the P300, is attention-dependent and reported to be smaller in children of alcoholics, the present results implicate that deviatio ns in attentive, but not in automatic, information processing are asso ciated with alcoholism vulnerability.