With respect to N4 latency, both HR and LR groups did not differ with each other in either of the semantic conditions. Other studies, with semantic processing paradigms, have shown similar lack of significant differences in N4 latency between alcoholics and controls (Nixon et al., 2002; Ceballos et al., 2005). Moreover, within each group, there were no significant differences in N4 latency between primed and unprimed words. The lack of N4 latency differences between the two groups is consistent with the conclusion that the observed deficits are not linked to a general slowing of cognitive processes related to semantic interpretation (Grillon et al., 1991; Nixon et al., 2002).
