The N1 or N100 component occurs around 100 ms after the stimulus and represents selective attentional processing; it has been shown to be modulated by the cognitive or emotional salience of the stimulus (Haider et al. 1964; Hansen and Hillyard 1980; Mangun and Hillyard 1995), and a larger N1 component is elicited for the attended and/or salient stimuli (Talsma and Woldorff 2005; Vogel and Luck 2000). Diminished N1 component has been found in both alcoholics (e.g., Cohen et al. 2002; Patterson et al. 1987) and their first-degree relatives (Steinhauer et al. 1987). Whereas the suppressed N1 component in alcoholics and HR study participants may indicate poor attentional modulation during stimulus processing, replication studies with identical methodology are required to confirm the phenomenon of N1-related deficits.
