Long-term alcohol abuse and dependence result in neurobehavioral decline that is reflected in diverse changes in the brain and behavior as alcohol’s effects reach across cognitive, emotional, psychomotor, and social abilities (Oscar-Berman and Marinkovic, 2007). Neuropsychological investigations indicate deficits in memory, visuospatial, and motor functions (Oscar-Berman and Hutner, 1993; Nixon et al., 1995; Oscar-Berman, 2000; Sullivan et al., 2000), but executive control skills are particularly impaired (Johnson-Greene et al., 1997; Lyvers, 2000; Moselhy et al., 2001). Some studies suggest relative sparing of verbal skills compared to more pronounced deficits on non-verbal tasks (Parsons, 1987; Oscar-Berman and Schendan, 2000; Moselhy et al., 2001). However, evidence obtained with event-related potentials (ERPs) indicates deficits in semantic processing in individuals with alcohol dependence (Nixon et al., 2002; Roopesh et al., 2010). A negative deflection peaking at ∼400 ms (N400) is evoked by potentially meaningful material and has been interpreted as an attempt to access and integrate a semantic representation into a current context (Halgren, 1990; Brown and Hagoort, 1993; Holcomb, 1993; Friederici, 1997; Kutas and Federmeier, 2000). Using a sentence paradigm, Nixon et al.
