Subjects were instructed to refrain from using alcohol and substances for 5 days prior to EEG recording. Subjects were excluded from neurophysiological assessment if they had any of the following: (1) report of recent drug/alcohol use or a positive breath-analyzer test, (2) hepatic encephalopathy/cirrhosis of the liver, (3) history of head injury, seizures or neurosurgery, (4) uncorrected sensory deficits, (5) history/symptoms of psychoses, (6) self-reported positive test for human immunodeficiency virus, and/or (7) other acute/chronic medical illnesses that affect brain function. The HR group consisted of individuals from the COGA high density alcoholism families who had at least one parent with DSM-IV alcohol dependence, while the participants for the LR group consisted of individuals from the community families without any parental history of alcohol dependence. The current study is cross-sectional by design and involves data from the initial (first) assessment only. The groups were further subdivided based on gender and age group (12–15 and 16–25 years old) (see Table 1). These age ranges were adapted in order to maintain proportionally optimal sample size in each subgroup. Although unequal interval of
