Motor Activity and Screening for Neurotoxicity

Abstract

Automated measures of motor activity have been used extensively to determine the functional impact of a wide range of chemical exposures, nervous system alterations, and environmental manipulations. The many factors that recommend motor activity for the routine preliminary assessment (screening) of the neurotoxic potential of chemicals include its noninvasive nature, ease of testing, availability of automated test equipment, and objectivity of the data. In this article, measures of motor activity were evaluated for their reliability, sensitivity, efficiency, and specificity. Motor activity measures were shown to be highly reliable both between subjects comprising a control group and across experimental control group replications. The sensitivity of motor activity measures generally is comparable to more sophisticated measures of neurobehavioral integrity, whereas their efficiency is characteristically superior. Although some questions may remain concerning the specificity of motor activity measures, data were presented to show that chemical-induced general malaise or sickness is not always associated with changes in motor activity. Motor activity measures possess many features that make them ideal for inclusion in a screening battery for neurotoxicity.