Studies using healthy, nonclinical participants have shown that stronger theta ERS is associated with increased memory load and allocation of attention to task demands (Klimesch 1996; Burgess and Gruzelier 1997; Doppelmayr et al. 2000; McEvoy et al. 2001; Missonnier et al. 2006; Deiber et al. 2007). While these cognitive processes have been shown to be affected by alcohol use/abuse (Nixon and Glenn 1995; Ratti et al. 1999; Beatty et al. 2000; Schmidt et al. 2005), aspects of these processes have also been shown to at least partially resolve after long-term abstinence from alcohol (Fein and McGillivray 2007; Fein et al. 2010). Greater theta ERS in LTAA suggests that LTAA may need to engage working memory and attentional processes more strongly than do control participants in order to successfully perform the target detection task. The difference in brain activity, indexed by larger theta ERS in LTAA compared with controls, suggests that increased theta ERS may be a biomarker for a morbid effect of alcohol abuse on brain function.
