Finally, ERPs also correlated with risk-taking behavior during the BART in the alcohol group, where larger FRN amplitudes (i.e., more negative FRN amplitudes) to losses were associated with increased risk-taking. By contrast, larger P300 amplitudes to losses were associated with decreased risk-taking behavior. There were no correlations between ERPs and risk-taking behavior in the placebo group. One possible explanation for this finding may be that alcohol-intoxicated participants had difficulty integrating individual instances of gains and losses across multiple trials, leading to unrealistic (overoptimistic) expectations about the chances of winning. Consequently, confrontation with an unexpected loss elicited increased FRNs. Several studies have shown that the FRN amplitude is largest when negative feedback is not anticipated (e.g., Yasuda et al. 2004). Alternative explanations, however, could possibly be that the ERPs may tap a different level of cognitive function than the behavioral measure (i.e., BART) or that either the ERP paradigm or the behavioral measure is not sensitive enough. Possibly, the variation of the scores of the participants in the placebo group may have been too large. Furthermore, no apparent relationships between personality
