The overarching aim of the present study is to examine reward processing (as indexed by P3 amplitude and CSD), and externalizing features in HR offspring recruited from high density alcoholism families in comparison with LR (comparison) subjects recruited from a community sample in the COGA Prospective Study, in the context of brain maturation across age groups and gender. This is the first ERP study using a monetary gambling paradigm to study HR offspring, and has been designed to examine the following hypotheses: (1) HR offspring will show lower P3 amplitude during reward processing than low-risk (LR) individuals from the comparison families; 2) HR group will show current density differences in both magnitude and topography as compared to the LR group; and (3) HR group will have higher impulsivity scores than the LR group. As the literature regarding P3 reduction in high risk subjects, as mentioned earlier, has often been equivocal with regard to gender- and age-based subgroups, the current study also investigates the effects of age and gender on P3 amplitudes in specific subgroups. It is expected that findings of
