Recent findings indicate that in addition to P3, many of the aberrations in resting and event-related oscillations reported in alcoholics already are apparent in high-risk offspring of alcoholics before alcohol exposure. The increased resting beta power observed in alcoholics also is present in both male and female offspring of alcoholics (Rangaswamy et al. 2004). The frontal theta deficits observed in alcoholics during a mental calculation task also are apparent in offspring of alcoholics (Suresh et al. submitted [b]). Similar to their alcoholic parents, the offspring manifest increased resting theta and decreased active frontal theta, suggesting that cognitive processing may be inefficient in these people before the development of alcoholism. As the electrophysiological differences are not related to length of abstinence and are apparent in people at risk before they have been exposed to alcohol, these neural oscillations could be considered markers of risk. The electrophysiological imbalances in excitation–inhibition observed in the offspring of alcoholics may be involved in the predisposition to develop alcoholism (Begleiter and Porjesz 1999). Long-term studies of childhood and adolescent precursors of adult alcohol abuse consistently identify
