Middle-latency auditory evoked potentials in children at high risk for alcoholism.

PURPOSE In the course of a high-risk study for alcoholism, the middle-latency auditory evoked potentials (MAEPs) of children of alcoholics were explored. MATERIAL AND METHODS A series of auditory clicks (0.1 ms, 60 dB SL, 1.1/s) were used to record the Pa and Pb peaks of the MAEPs in 15 children of alcoholics with a multigenerational family history of alcoholism, and 17 control subjects, ranging from 10 to 14 years of age. RESULTS The latency of Pb was shorter in the high-risk than in the control group, and there was also a significant risk group by age interaction on Pa latency. The amplitude of Pa was smaller in the children of alcoholics. CONCLUSIONS The characteristics of the MAEPs of the high-risk subjects did not match the pattern of abnormalities previously observed in chronic alcoholics, which are supposed to be a consequence of the neurotoxic effects of ethanol. Nonetheless, the results showed significant differences in MAEPs between children of alcoholics and controls, pointing to an anomalous pattern of information transmission from thalamus to cortex that should be further analyzed using larger samples in a broader age range.