Brain signatures of monetary loss and gain: outcome-related potentials in a single outcome gambling task.

This study evaluates the event-related potential (ERP) components in a single outcome gambling task that involved monetary losses and gains. The participants were 50 healthy young volunteers (25 males and 25 females). The gambling task involved valence (loss and gain) and amount (50 cent and 10 cent) as outcomes.

Delta and theta oscillations as risk markers in adolescent offspring of alcoholics.

Background: Visual P300 is consistently lower in alcohol-dependent individuals, their offspring and subjects at risk. Delta and theta event-related oscillations (ERO) are the major contributors to the P300 signal. The total and evoked power in delta and theta bands in the 300 to 700 ms post-stimulus window (corresponding to the zone of P300 maxima) was compared between adolescent offspring of alcoholics (high-risk) and age-matched normal controls (low-risk), to assess the utility of the risk markers.

S-transform time-frequency analysis of P300 reveals deficits in individuals diagnosed with alcoholism.

Objective: Decomposition of event-related potential (ERP) waveforms using time-frequency representations (TFR's) is becoming increasingly common in electrophysiology. The P300 potential is an important component of the ERP waveform and has been used to study cognition as well as psychiatric disorders such as alcoholism. In this work, we aim to further understand the nature of the event-related oscillation (ERO) components which form the P300 wave and how these components may be used to differentiate alcoholic individuals from controls.

Evoked gamma band response in male adolescent subjects at high risk for alcoholism during a visual oddball task.

This study investigates early evoked gamma band activity in male adolescent subjects at high risk for alcoholism (HR; n=68) and normal controls (LR; n=27) during a visual oddball task. A time-frequency representation method was applied to EEG data in order to obtain stimulus related early evoked (phase-locked) gamma band activity (29-45 Hz) and was analyzed within a 0-150 ms time window range. Significant reduction of the early evoked gamma band response in the frontal and parietal regions during target stimulus processing was observed in HR subjects compared to LR subjects.

Event-related oscillations in offspring of alcoholics: neurocognitive disinhibition as a risk for alcoholism.

Background: Event-related oscillations (EROs) are increasingly being used to assess neurocognitive functioning in normal and clinical populations. The current study compares different frequency activities in offspring of alcoholics (OA) and in normal control subjects (NC) to examine whether the OA group exhibits any abnormality in oscillatory activity while performing a Go/NoGo task.

Methods: The S-transform algorithm was employed to decompose the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals into different time-frequency bands, and the oscillatory responses in the P300 time window (300-700 milliseconds) were statistically analyzed in both groups.

Suppression of early evoked gamma band response in male alcoholics during a visual oddball task.

We investigated the early evoked gamma frequency band activity in alcoholics (n=122) and normal controls (n=72) during a visual oddball task. A time-frequency representation method was applied to EEG data in order to obtain phase-locked gamma band activity (29-45 Hz) and was analyzed within a 0-150 ms time window range. Significant reduction of the gamma band response in the frontal region during target stimulus processing was observed in alcoholic compared to control subjects.

Alcoholism is a disinhibitory disorder: neurophysiological evidence from a Go/No-Go task.

Response inhibition is considered a core dimension in alcoholism and its co-existing disorders. The major objective of this study is to compare the magnitude and spatial distribution of ERP components during response activation and inhibition in alcoholics (N = 30) and normal controls (N = 30) using a visual Go/No-Go task. The results indicate that alcoholics manifest a decreased P3(00) amplitude during Go as well as No-Go conditions.

Spatial-anatomical mapping of NoGo-P3 in the offspring of alcoholics: evidence of cognitive and neural disinhibition as a risk for alcoholism.

Objective: The concept of disinhibition as a behavioral and biological trait has been considered to be involved in the etiology of alcoholism and its co-existing disorders. The magnitude and functional mapping of event-related potential P3(00) components were analyzed, in order to examine the possible response inhibition deficits in the offspring of alcoholics.

Methods: The P3 components were compared between 50 offspring of alcoholics (OA) and a matched normal control group (NC) using a visual Go/NoGo task.

The utility of neurophysiological markers in the study of alcoholism.

Objective: This review attempts to differentiate neuroelectric measures (electroencephalogram (EEG), event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related oscillations (EROs)) related to acute and chronic effects of alcohol on the brain from those that reflect underlying deficits related to the predisposition to develop alcoholism and related disorders. The utility of these neuroelectric measures as endophenotypes for psychiatric genetics is evaluated.

Methods: This article reviews the main findings of EEG and ERP abnormalities in alcoholics, offspring of alcoholics at high risk to develop alcoholism and the electrophysiological effects of alcohol on high risk compared to low-risk offspring.

The role of brain oscillations as functional correlates of cognitive systems: a study of frontal inhibitory control in alcoholism.

Event-related oscillations play a key role in understanding the brain dynamics and human information processing. In the present study, the Go/No-Go paradigm has been used to examine whether alcoholics have poor inhibitory control as compared to control subjects in terms of different oscillatory brain responses. The matching pursuit algorithm was used to decompose the event-related electroencephalogram into oscillations of different frequencies.