Características neuropsicológicas de los sujetos de alto riesgo al alcoholismo: en busca de marcadores de vulnerabilidad familiar

This article reviews studies of high risk of alcoholism which have examined neuropsychological characteristics in children of alcoholics, with the aim of examining family vulnerability to this disorder. The most consistent results come from studies with young children of alcoholics; they reveal differences in specific areas of cognitive functioning between children with and without a family history of alcoholism, particularly when alcoholic fathers manifest severe forms of the disorder. The differences are observed in the performance of attentional, visuospatial and frontal tests.Este trabajo revisa los estudios de alto riesgo al alcoholismo que han examinado las características neuropsicológicas de los hijos de alcohólicos con el fin de profundizar en la vulnerabilidad familiar a este trastorno. Los resultados más consistentes provienen de los estudios con muestras en edad infantil o adolescente. En ellos se observa que los hijos de alcohólicos, especialmente aquellos con antecedentes de las formas más severas del trastorno, manifiestan diferencias en determinadas áreas de fucionamiento cognitivo frente a sujetos sin historia familiar de alcoholismo. Las diferencias de rendimiento se manifiestan en aquellas tareas que exploran la atención y las habilidades visoespaciales y frontales

Event-related potentials elicited by infrequent non-target stimuli in young children of alcoholics: Family history and gender differences

This article analyses the visual and auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by infrequent non-target stimuli in young children with alcoholic fathers. The aim was to study the characteristics of the ERP waves specifically evoked by stimuli which capture the attention of the subject in young ones at risk for alcoholism, and to assess the effect of sample factors which can modulate these characteristics, namely family history of alcoholism and gender. There were no differences related to risk for alcoholism on the auditory ERPs. However, males and females with a multigenerational family history of alcoholism showed significant differences on visual ERP latencies, although different waves were affected for each gender. Females showed a larger latency of the visual frontal negative wave, Nc, and males showed a larger latency of the visual parietocentral P300 waveThis research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (DGICYT) grants PM91-0159-C02-02 and PB95-0856S

Neuropsychological characteristics of young children from high-density alcoholism families: A three-year follow-up

Objective: We performed a follow-up study of a group of young children from high-density alcoholism families (HD children), who were first assessed about 3.5 years ago, with the aim of evaluating verbal span and visuospatial abilities (which differed significantly between HD and control [C] children at the first assessment), as well as other neuropsychological measures. Method: In this second assessment, 22 boys and girls were evaluated. They were comparable in family income and parents' level of education. The 12 HD children had an alcoholic father and at least two other alcoholic relatives, whereas the 10 C children had no family history of alcoholism in either the first or second generation. A neuropsychological battery was set up with standardized tasks to measure attention, memory, visuospatial and executive functions. Results: Analysis revealed significant Group x Assessment interactions in the digit span subtest where high-density children increased their performance until it reached that of the control children, and in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) where high-density children did not show the same improvement as the C children with maturation. A main effect was also observed for group factor in perseverative responses of the WCST. Conclusions: High-density children attain the same level of performance as control children for verbal span, but differences between groups increase over time for executive functioning as measured by the WCST. These results are considered in the context ofthe developmental delay hypothesis. The small sample size, however, means further studies will be necessary to confirm our findings.This study was financed, in part, by the Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (Spain) with DGICYT grants (PB95-0856) awarded to Fernando Cadaveira.S

Visual and auditory event-related potentials in young children of alcoholics from high- and low-density families

Event-related potentials (ERPs), particularly the P3 wave, have been proposed as biological markers of genetic risk for alcoholism. The present study assesses the ERPs from 102 boys and girls (7 to 15 years old) divided into three groups: two groups of sons and daughters of alcoholic fathers, with and without other first- or second-degree relatives affected, and a control group of children of nonalcoholics. Both visual and auditory discrimination tasks with three stimuli (standard, target, and infrequent nontarget) were used. P3 amplitudes did not reach significant reduction for the high-risk males and were complex for females. There were significant differences among females in P3 visual latency elicited by targets; delays in this variable were associated with multigenerational familial alcoholism. Results are discussed in light of the tasks used for eliciting the ERPs and the characteristics of the selected sampleThis study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (DGlCYT) Grants PM91-0159-C02-02 and PB95-0856S

Mismatch negativity in young children of alcoholics from high-density families

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials was recorded from a group of young children of alcoholics (n = 19, 8 females) with a high-density family history of alcoholism and from a control group (n = 23, 12 females), between 8 and 15 years of age. A dichotic listening task was used, and subjects had to pay attention to an oddball paradigm in one ear and ignore the stimuli in the other ear. The event-related potentials elicited by the standard unattended tones were subtracted from those elicited by the infrequent deviant unattended tones, and the MMN was measured at 10 frontal and central electrodes. No group differences were observed in peak latency, peak amplitude, and mean amplitude of the MMN. These results indicated that preattentive mechanisms of mismatch detection were not impaired in young subjects at high risk for alcoholism. Results are discussed in relation to differences in electrophysiological indexes of automatic versus controlled information processing and in relation to the characteristics of the sample.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (DGlCYT) Grant PB95-0856S

Neuropsychological characteristics in children of alcoholics: familial density

Objective: The purpose of high-risk studies is to find characteristics that allow the identification of subjects with a higher vulnerability to alcoholism. The aim of this research was to verify if the familial density criterion is useful for subtyping children of alcoholics with different neuropsychological characteristics. Method: A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to 102 boys and girls of 7-15 years of age; 66 were children of alcoholics with a high (n = 32) and low (n = 34) familial density of alcoholism, and 36 were children of nonalcoholic fathers with a negative family history of the disorder. The battery included tests to assess attention, visuospatial abilities and frontal functions. Results: MANCOVAs showed that high-density children scored lower than children of nonalcoholic fathers in attentional and visuospatial tasks. There were no differences between low-density and negative family history children in these cognitive domains. Conclusions: These results suggest that children of alcoholics are not a ho­ mogeneous group. Children with multigenerational alcoholism, but not children with an alcoholic father, showed reduced performance in specific cognitive areasThis study was supported in part by Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (Spain) with DGICYT grants (PM91-0159-C02-02 and PB95-0856) to Fernando Cadaveira and a postgraduate grant to Montserrat CorralS

Event-Related Potentials Elicited by a Visual Continuous Performance Task in Children of Alcoholics

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from a group of young children of alcoholics (HR; n -17, 7 females) with a high-density family-history of alcoholism and from a control group (CN; n -19, 10 females), ages 7–15 years old, during a visual continuous performance task. The P3 peak amplitude and the mean amplitude at five latency windows (300–800 ms) were measured at frontal (F3-Fz-F4), central (C3-Cz-C4) and parietal (P3-Pz-P4) electrodes. Data were analyzed using a mixed-model risk-group by stimulus-type (matching vs. nonmatching) by Electrode ANCOVA, with age as a covariate, for each of the scalp regions. The risk-group by stimulus- type interactions were significant at the parietal region for the P3 peak amplitude and for the 300–400 ms mean amplitude, although there were no risk-group main differences. The HR group manifested smaller differences between the amplitude of the matching and nonmatching condition than the CN group. These results suggest a deficient electrophysiological differentiation between relevant and irrelevant information and are discussed in relation to previous reports and to the characteristics of the sampleThis research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (DGICYT) grant PB95-0856S

The effects of stimulus intensity and age on visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) in normal children

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Carrillo-de-la-Peña, M.T.; Rodríguez Holguín, S.; Cadaveira, F. (1999). The effects of stimulus intensity and age on visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) in normal children. Psychophysiology, 36(6), 693-698, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8986.3660693. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived VersionsIn this study, we explored the effects of flash intensity and age on visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) in a sample of 85 children aged 8–15 years. Results of previous studies are discrepant regarding the extent to which children show an evoked potential augmenting tendency at vertex, which has been reported to be a characteristic of an immature inhibitory control system. In the present study, VEPs to light flashes of four different intensities were recorded at Cz. The results confirmed that P1N1 and N1P2 at Cz were positively related to increases in stimulus intensity, whereas N1 was not related reliably to intensity. This difference between peak–peak and baseline–peak amplitude findings at Cz relative to evoked potential augmenting and reducing may help to explain discrepant results among earlier studies. Developmental changes were found for our sample of children that were independent of stimulus intensity: N1 amplitude increased significantly with age, whereas N1 latency showed a small (nonsignificant) age-related decreaseThis research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (DGICYT) grant PB95-0856S

Response to “Is there room for attentional impairments in binge drinking? A commentary on Carbia et al. (2018).”

Carina Carbia has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754535. Eduardo López-Caneda was supported by the SFRH/BPD/109750/2015 Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology as well as by the Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653)S

Electrophysiological correlates of an alcohol-cued Go/NoGo task: A dual-process approach to binge drinking in university students.

Binge drinking is a common pattern of alcohol consumption in adolescence and youth. Neurocognitive dual-process models attribute substance use disorders and risk behaviours during adolescence to an imbalance between an overactivated a ective-automatic system (involved in motivational and affective processing) and a reflective system (involved in cognitive inhibitory control). The aim of the present study was to investigate at the electrophysiological level the degree to which the motivational value of alcohol-related stimuli modulates the inhibition of a prepotent response in binge drinkers. First-year university students (n = 151, 54 % females) classified as binge drinkers (n = 71, 6 or more binge drinking episodes, defined as 5/7 standard drinks per occasion in the last 180 days) and controls (n = 80, <6 binge drinking episodes in the last 180 days) performed a beverage Go/NoGo task (pictures of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks were presented according to the condition as Go or NoGo stimuli; Go probability = 0.75) during event-related potential recording. In binge drinkers but not controls, the amplitude of the anterior N2-NoGo was larger in response to nonalcohol than in response to alcohol pictures. No behavioural difference in task performance was observed. In terms of dual-process models, binge drinkers may require increased activation to monitor conflict in order to compensate for overactivation of the affective-automatic system caused by alcohol-related biasFunding for this research was provided by the Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas (PNSD 2015/034) and Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad together with European Regional Development Fund (PSI2015-70525-P) and Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2917/06). J.B-R was supported by the FPU program (FPU2015-03591) of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and SportsS