Assessment of young men at risk for alcoholism with P300 from a visual discrimination task.

A visual discrimination paradigm was used to elicit the P3 (P300) component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) in a large group (N = 196) of male undergraduate volunteers. Comparison of P3 amplitude and latencies between individuals with a positive family history for alcoholism (FH +) and those without such a history (FH -) obtained no differences between the groups. No associations between P3 latency or amplitude and the amount of alcohol typically consumed were found. Differences between the present and previous P3 family history studies using visual stimuli are attributed to the cognitive demands of ERP task.