Chronic alcoholism is associated with a broad spectrum of brain disturbances ranging from severe symptoms of Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome to subtle but nonetheless significant cognitive disturbances characteristic of a majority of alcoholic patients. The etiology of alcohol-related brain damage/dysfunction is not entirely known, as there are brain changes during acute and chronic intoxication, as well as during withdrawal; some brain changes recover with prolonged abstinence and some brain anomalies antecede the development of AUDs and may be involved in the predisposition to develop AUDs. This section will focus on EEG, ERP, and ERO measures of brain dysfunction in AUDs in abstinent alcoholics, as well as in HR offspring of alcoholics, to help determine which are consequences of AUDs and which antecede its development. (For earlier reviews of other aspects of alcoholism and electrophysiology (e.g., sensory components), see Porjesz and Begleiter, 1983, 1985, 1993, 1996.)
