Many early cross-sectional studies have shown that P300 is reduced in children from alcoholic families in comparison to offspring from control families (Begleiter et al., 1984; Hill et al., 1990; Hill and Steinhauer, 1993; Steinhauer and Hill, 1993). Several studies have shown that P300 response is primarily the outcome of delta (1.0–3.0Hz) and theta (3.5–7.5 Hz) oscillations during cognitive processing of stimuli (see Porjesz et al., 2005 for review). Studies reporting variation in delta and theta oscillations in the high risk relatives of alcohol dependent individuals suggest that these oscillations are not state dependent effects seen only in alcohol dependent individuals but rather a familial trait (Jones et al., 2004; Jones et al., 2006; Porjesz and Rangaswamy et al., 2007).
