The N2 is a negative going wave observed approximately 200 to 350 ms after stimulus onset, maximally at frontocentral sites, and has been associated with several processes such as the covert orienting of attention, the detection of response conflict (conflict monitoring), response inhibition, and error detection (Jodo and Kayama 1992; Nieuwenhuis et al. 2004; Wijers et al. 1989). Alcoholics have been reported to have longer N2 latency (Cadaveira et al. 1991; Porjesz et al. 1987) and lower amplitude (Cristini et al. 2003; Realmuto et al. 1993) during an oddball task. Decreased N2 amplitude in alcoholics also has been observed during inhibition in a Go/No-Go task (Cristini et al. 2003; Pandey et al. 2012b) and during loss in a MGT task (Kamarajan et al. 2010). Further, Fein and Chang (2008) reported that smaller N2 amplitudes in feedback trials were associated with a greater family history density of alcohol problems.
