Alcoholism has been considered to be a complex neuropsychiatric condition with multifactorial etiology, and understanding of this disorder has warranted studies of diverse neurobiological methods. Event-related potentials (ERPs), derived from the scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) during a task condition, is considered to be one of the most effective and useful measure to understand the neurocognitive dysfunctions in alcoholism (Begleiter et al., 1980, 1984; Porjesz et al., 2005b). The amplitude reduction of the P3 component of the ERPs, a robust positivity around 300 ms, has been considered to be a marker for alcoholism and risk (Begleiter et al., 1984; Porjesz and Begleiter, 1990; Porjesz et al., 1998). Further, this ‘P3-amplitude reduction’ (P3-AR) was also found to be common for a host of similar disorders called externalizing/disinhibitory disorders that often coexist with alcoholism (Patrick et al., 2006; Carlson et al., 2007).
