Research findings from monkey studies have shown less firing in masses of nerve cells with response to repeated or primed stimuli, suggesting selective inhibition (Miller et al., 1991; Miller et al., 1993). This selective inhibition can be hypothesized to facilitate better processing for familiar stimuli, such as repeated and/or primed stimuli. If this selective inhibition is not observed, each incoming stimulus can be said to be processed as a new stimulus (Porjesz and Begleiter, 1995), thus implying deficits in cognitive inhibition. In the current study in contrast with controls, the N400 amplitude is not decreased for the primed stimulus in alcoholics, where each word can be assumed to be processed anew, which suggests that alcoholics show deficits in inhibition. Parallels can be drawn between semantic priming deficits and deficits in cognitive inhibition, as several studies have theorized that alcoholism falls into a spectrum of disinhibitory disorders (Cohen et al., 1997; Hada et al., 2000; Kamarajan et al., 2006; Kamarajan et al., 2005a; Pfefferbaum et al., 1991; Porjesz et al., 2005). It should be emphasized that most of the higher cognitive
