Behaviorally, this has been manifested as a higher incidence of risk taking behavior, such as drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, risky sexual activity, aggression and antisocial behavior. Fein said that other studies have shown that alcohol consumption reduces MMN in a dose-related fashion. However, this effect is temporary and requires larger and larger amounts of alcohol to achieve an effect. Fein said the study's results are exciting for additional reasons. It's easy to find that alcohol use or abuse affects the body and brain.
Effects associated with the predisposition to alcoholism are much harder to find.
Second, the finding of an increase in mismatch negativity makes the study of greater interest. Such individuals often have impaired memory, attention, etc. A finding that something is less in such individuals is not that exciting because many, many mechanisms could contribute to such a finding in human studies. The subject could be less attentive, less motivated, etc. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.