Participants were 67 right-handed youth (43 males/24 females), aged 18.0 – 22.3 years (mean 20.2±1.2), recruited from the MLS study of families with parental alcoholism (FH+; 2/3 of sample) and contrast nonalcoholic families (FH-; 1/3 of sample). Parental alcoholism was based on DSM-IV criteria. A detailed description regarding MLS recruitment strategy/assessment procedures can be found elsewhere (Zucker et al., 2000, Zucker et al., 1996). Exclusionary criteria were: 1) any neurological, acute, uncorrected or chronic medical illness; 2) any current or recent (within six months) treatment with centrally active medications; 3) a history of psychosis or schizophrenia in first-degree relatives. Presence of most Axis I psychiatric or developmental disorders was also exclusionary. However, externalizing disorders (i.e., conduct disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or prior substance use disorder) were not exclusionary as these are on the same developmental spectrum with alcoholism risk (Krueger, 1999). In addition, participants were given a multidrug five-panel urine screen before scanning and those with a positive drug screen were not included in this study. Participants gave written informed consent after explanation of the experimental protocol, as approved by the local Institutional Review Board.
