matching pursuit approach to signal decomposition that provides a measure similar to total power (Kamarajan et al. 2004). They reported that δ power was lower in alcoholics in both the GO and NOGO conditions, with the effects larger in the NOGO than GO condition and widespread over a range of scalp sites. θ power was smaller only in the NOGO condition and then only at frontal sites. The present data did not replicate the previous findings of lower θ power in alcoholics than controls (Andrew and Fein; Jones et al. 2006; Kamarajan et al. 2004). One possible explanation relates to the P3-locked search window used in the present analysis. Because alcoholics tend to have later P3 peaks, using a window that varies according to that latency ensures that group comparisons will only capture θ power specifically related to P3 amplitude. Previous studies may have included θ power related to other earlier components. However, the most likely explanation for the lack of a θ power group difference is the low statistical power associated with the small number of alcoholic subjects relative to the previous studies.
