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HOMOLOGOUS MEASURES OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN HUMAN INFANTS AND LABORATORY ANIMALS TO IDENTIFY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS TO CHILDREN
Citation:
McMaster, S B., A. Fraser, C. Sharbaugh, AND S. M. Viet. HOMOLOGOUS MEASURES OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN HUMAN INFANTS AND LABORATORY ANIMALS TO IDENTIFY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS TO CHILDREN. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC, 111(13):1630-1639, (2003).
Description:
The importance of including neurodevelopmental endpoints in environmental studies is clear. A validated measure of cognitive fucntion in human infants that also has a parallel test in laboratory animal studies will provide a valuable approach for largescale studies. Such a homologous test will allow researchers to observe the effect of environmetnal neurotoxicants in animals and relate those findings to humans. This paper presents the results of a review of post-1990, peer-reviewed literature and current research examining measures of cognitive function that can be applied to both human infants (0-12 months) and laboratory animals. The paper begins with a discussion of the defition of cognitive function and important considerations in cross-species research. We then describe identified homologous measures, providing a description of the test in human infants and animal subjects. Available information on test reliability, validity, and population norms, we well as test limitations and constraints, is also presented. We conclude with a brief discussion of a few tests that are currently under development for cognitive function assessment in human infants.