A study that investigated links between response inhibition in a visual Go/NoGo paradigm in social drinkers found that Go and NoGo N2 showed a strong trend of being smaller centrally for heavy drinkers compared to light drinkers, but the Go P3 showed no group differences (Oddy and Barry, 2009). Only the NoGo P3 reduction was correlated with alcohol consumption. A response inhibition longitudinal study from the same laboratory (Lopez-Caneda et al., 2012) also reported increased P3 amplitudes for both Go (at baseline and follow-up) and NoGo (only at follow-up), suggesting a progressing influence of binge drinking on response inhibition. The authors suggested that increased amplitudes of P3 may reflect compensatory mechanisms within the adolescent brain.
