Our results are consistent with the contention that TNAD are relatively cognitively intact. Our investigation assessed a broad range of cognitive domains, including those that are most susceptible to disruption from chronic heavy alcohol use. The TNAD in our study did not display the pattern of cognitive deficits typically found in clinical samples. This finding is consistent with results from another recent study (Chao et al., 2003) which, along with event-related potentials (ERPs) and regional brain volumes, assessed cognitive performance in treatment-naïve active alcoholics on three measures that are considered to be highly sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction—the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop color-word interference, and the Trail Making Test B. Their TNAD sample was somewhat older (mean age = 43) than ours (mean = 31.5), so their sample should be more likely to display cognitive deficits. However, although TNAD individuals in Chao and colleagues’ (2003) study differed from control subjects on categories completed, non-perseverative errors on the WCST, and word reading for the Stroop, they did not differ on those measures which are most commonly associated with frontal
