The objective of this study was to examine brain activity, with particular attention to prefrontal function, during response execution and inhibition in youths who have engaged in Binge Drinking (BD) for at least two years. Design: Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded twice within three years, during performance of a Go/NoGo task.
The study was part of a longitudinal study of the neurocognitive effects of BD.
48 undergraduate students, 25 controls (14 females) and 23 binge drinkers (10 females), with no personal or family history of alcoholism or psychopathological disorders.
The Go-P3 and NoGo-P3 components of the ERPs were examined by Principal Component Analysis and exact Low-Resolution Tomography Analysis (eLORETA).
Binge drinkers showed larger Go-P3 amplitudes than controls in the first and second evaluations (p = .019). They also showed larger NoGo-P3 amplitude in the second evaluation (p = .002). eLORETA analyses in the second evaluation revealed significantly greater activation of the right Inferior Frontal Cortex (rIFC) in binge drinkers than in controls during successful inhibition (p < .05).
Young binge drinkers appear to show abnormal brain activity as measured by Event-Related Potentials during response execution and inhibition which may represent a neural antecedent of difficulties in impulse control.
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