No Electrocortical Evidence of Automatic Mismatch Dysfunction in Children of Alcoholics

Abstract

The mismatch negativity (MMN) event‐related potential (ERP) component is an automatic, attention‐independent brain response to auditory stimulus change, which has been reported to be smaller in alcoholics relative to nonalcoholic controls. To determine whether MMN decrements might be a trait marker of alcoholism that is also present in nonalcoholic individuals at high risk for developing alcoholism, we investigated MMN in 9‐to 18‐year‐old children of alcoholics (n= 20) and control children (n= 20) in three different stimulus conditions using a passive auditory oddball paradigm. There were no statistically significant between‐group differences observed in amplitude, scalp topography, and peak latency of MMN. These findings, if replicated, suggest that reported MMN decrements in alcoholics most likely represent a state marker, and not a trait marker, of alcoholism. Also, inasmuch as another ERP component, the P300, is attention‐dependent and reported to be smaller in children of alcoholics, the present results implicate that deviations in attentive, but not in automatic, information processing are associated with alcoholism vulnerability.