material and has been interpreted as an attempt to access and integrate a semantic representation into a current context (Halgren, 1990; Brown and Hagoort, 1993; Holcomb, 1993; Friederici, 1997; Kutas and Federmeier, 2000). Using a sentence paradigm, Nixon et al. (2002) reported a reduced N400 to the incongruent sentence-terminal words in abstinent alcoholics. Roopesh et al. (2010) recorded ERPs from abstinent alcohol dependent individuals and compared the N400 evoked by semantically primed and unprimed words. The priming-induced attenuation of the N400 was much smaller in alcohol dependent participants compared to controls (Roopesh et al., 2010). Similar deficiency in semantic processing was observed in young individuals at risk for developing alcoholism (Roopesh et al., 2009). Although more studies are needed, this evidence indicates that the deficits in semantic access and integration in chronic alcoholic cohorts may be a consequence of excessive drinking, with possible contributions from dispositional factors.
