While the electrophysiological signatures of reward processing have been well-established, the reward processing mechanisms that may mediate alcohol dependence and its risk have not yet been fully understood, as there are only a few ERP/ERO studies that have examined reward processing in alcoholics and their high risk offspring. In 2008, using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), Fein and Chang [24] reported smaller FRN in treatment-naive alcoholics from families densely affected with alcohol problems. Using a monetary gambling task, our group reported that alcoholic subjects showed smaller outcome related ERP components (ORN/N2 and ORN/P3) [25] as well as decreased theta power during reward processing [49] compared to controls. During reward processing, alcoholics were also found to manifest increased impulsivity and negative correlations between impulsiveness and P3 amplitude [25] as well as between impulsiveness and theta power [49]. Recently, we conducted an ERP study in adolescents and young adult offspring from alcoholic families (HR, high risk to develop alcoholism who had at least one parent with alcohol dependence) and found that adolescent females and young adult males showed reduced P3 amplitudes
