The present study has elucidated reward processing deficits in younger and older high risk offspring from dense alcoholism families of COGA. Older male and younger female HR subgroups have shown significantly lower P3 amplitude and reduced CSD activation at frontal sources during reward processing compared to their LR counterparts. High risk subjects were also found to be more impulsive than LR subjects. Negative correlation between P3 amplitudes and impulsivity scores suggested that reduced P3 amplitude and increased impulsivity (as manifested by HR offspring) may predispose toward risk for alcoholism and related disorders. Further, gender- and age-specific findings of the present study may have several implications for future research on alcoholism and risk. Lastly, it is suggested that using electrophysiological endophenotypes, such as P3 and its oscillatory components, to identify genes involved in risk for alcoholism and related disorders may serve as sensitive biomarkers that are physiologically closer to gene functions, that may shed light on novel prevention, diagnosis and treatment options.
