Brain evoked potentials as predictors of risk.

Sensory evoked potentials are capable of demonstrating brain sensory and cognitive function. These measures of brain activity can be used to demonstrate genetic influences in alcoholism. Auditory evoked potentials have been used successfully to demonstrate inherited differences in alcohol sensitivity. As in animal models, these inherited differences are limited to particular neuronal mechanisms and are not a general property of all neurons. The P300 wave, which is elicited in particular paradigms in which the subject is required to attend to specific stimuli, is smaller in subjects who are at high risk for alcoholism by virtue of having an alcoholic father. These subjects at risk for alcoholism show lower P300 amplitudes in paradigms in which they are given small doses of alcohol. P300 is also small in younger high-risk subjects who have never been exposed to alcohol. The evoked potential data are in general agreement with earlier electroencephalographic data that suggested the presence of electrophysiological abnormalities in the children of alcoholics.