Previous studies indicate that AD may be related to variations in the brain’s reward system 71, including decreased reward-network volume 72 and differential neural activity in reward circuitry 73-75. In the COGA Prospective Sample, minor allele carriers of rs1912461 showed greater differentiation in frontal evoked theta power between loss and gain feedback trials in an EEG-based Monetary Gambling Task. Prior studies have found lower reward-related theta power in alcoholics and in high-risk offspring of alcoholics than controls performing the same task 47,76. Frontal theta response underlies a variety of cognitive processes 77,78 including reward processing 79-81. Moreover, it has recently been proposed that frontal theta reflects a promising mechanism through which cognitive control may be enacted by invoking a shift from habitual-based striatum responses to deliberative prefrontal-based control of behavior 82. Furthermore, the frontal-central theta power difference between loss and gain conditions may reflect the need for cognitive control to process goal-relevant information, such as decision making and action selection, based on choice-relevant information (approach-avoidance, reward-punishment, success-failure, etc.) for optimal functioning in the environment 82. In this study, the COGA
