In the last two decades family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies have provided compelling evidence for the presence of genetic factors in the predisposition toward alcoholism. These studies have convincingly demonstrated that male offspring of alcoholic fathers are at high risk (HR) to develop alcoholism in contrast to low risk (LR) individuals, such as sons of nonalcoholic fathers. For the past ten years, our laboratory, as well as other investigators, have observed a number of neurophysiological anomalies in HR subjects. The great majority of the studies have noted that the amplitude of the P3 component of the event-related potential. (ERP) is significantly reduced in HR males. In addition, we have observed other deficits in various components of the ERP related to specific information processing tasks. Recent convincing evidence from genetic epidemiological studies demonstrate that daughters of alcoholic fathers are at equal risk as sons of alcoholic fathers. This new scientific evidence leads us to investigate a previously neglected population, namely: daughters of alcoholic fathers. We propose to use a few standard ERP paradigms tested in HR males, and introduce a new set of ERP paradigms testing for specific neurophysiological hypotheses. Finally, we plan to develop data analytic procedures such as wavelet analysis, as applied specifically to ERP analysis. The identification of potential neuroelectric deficits in females at high risk similar to those in males would provide novel insight in establishing new phenotypic descriptors of great utility in genetic analysis and prevention initiatives.
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