The literature is replete with compelling evidence of brain dysfunction in chronic alcoholics as well as their high-risk offspring from neuropsychological, neuroimaging, neuropathological and neurophysiological techniques; in particular frontal lobe changes have been highlighted (Moselhy et al., 2001; Zahr et al., 2010, 2011). Neuroimaging methods, such as structural/functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography, (PET) have certain advantages that include excellent spatial resolution; yet they offer relatively poor temporal resolution compared to electrophysiological methods that evaluate brain function in the millisecond range (Celesia and Brigell, 1992; Krieger et al., 1995). Neuroelectrophysiological techniques have further advantages of being non-invasive and relatively inexpensive to implement. Electrophysiology has provided several excellent measures of acute and chronic effects of alcohol on the brain. While it was assumed that these aberrant characteristics in alcoholics were solely due to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol on the brain, the evidence indicates that some neuroelectrophysiological characteristics reflect predispositions that antecede the development of alcoholism and related disorders.
