Alcoholics are deficient not only in their response to task-relevant target stimuli (P3bs) but also in response to task-irrelevant rare stimuli (P3a), as revealed by ERP findings. Recent ERO findings indicate that alcoholics manifest decreased theta and delta oscillations to both Go and No-Go stimuli in a Go/No-Go task. As increased theta power indicates inhibition of responding to irrelevant information during selective information processing tasks (Klimesch et al. 2000), decreased theta oscillations in alcoholics may reflect deficient inhibitory control.
