We tested 14 abstinent alcoholic men and 14 similarly aged control men. All were right handed and had normal or corrected to normal vision. Written informed consent to participate in the study was given by all subjects after reading a detailed description of the procedures and having their questions answered. The protocol was approved by the Stanford University and SRI International institutional review boards, and was in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants underwent medical and psychiatric screening that included a structured alcohol history (Pfefferbaum et al. 1988) and structured clinical interview [Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I DSM-IV Disorders (SCID)] (First et al. 1998). All alcoholic participants and none of the control subjects met the DSM-IV criteria for alcohol dependence. Alcoholics were between 1 and 4 months abstinent. Controls consumed significantly less alcohol during their lifetime than the alcoholic men. The control men were significantly more educated than the alcoholic men. There was no difference in socioeconomic status (SES) or National Adult Reading Test (NART) intelligence quotient (IQ) (Nelson 1982) scores between the groups. All 14 alcoholics
