Reconsideration of the WHO NCTB strategy and test selection

- The WHO NCTB, recommended in 1983, is in need of reconsideration.
- A 'screening' battery of broadly sensitive tests is needed as guidance to the field of human neurotoxicology.
- The functions measured and the tests should be reconsidered.
- Three disciplines should be represented on the panel: neuropsychology, experimental psychology, neurology.

The World Health Organization-recommended neurobehavioral core test battery (NCTB) became the international standard for identifying adverse human behavioral effects due to neurotoxic chemical exposure when it was first proposed in 1983. Since then the WHO NCTB has been repeatedly cited as the basis for test selection in human neurotoxicology research. A discussion group was held before the International Symposium on Neurobehavioral Methods and Effects in Occupational and Environmental Health to review the NCTB and reconsider its tests. The workshop made three consensus recommendations to the International Congress on Occupational Health (ICOH) Scientific Committee on Neurotoxicology and Psychophysiology (SCNP):.1.A 'screening' battery of broadly sensitive tests is needed as guidance to the field of human neurotoxicology2.The SCNP should convene a panel to reconsider the functions measured and the tests in the WHO NCTB3.Three disciplines should be represented in the panel recommending a revised NCTB: neuropsychology; experimental psychology; neurologyThis recommendation will be pursued at the next meeting of the International Congress on Occupational Health (ICOH) Scientific Committee on Neurotoxicology and Psychophysiology (SCNP).