Sensory Evoked Potentials: Measures of Neurotoxicity

摘要

There is a need for tests of sensory function to be incorporated in laboratory animal toxicity testing. It is clear that sensory dysfunction may frequently occur, but go undetected, in standard animal toxicological testing protocols. Sensory evoked potential technology can be employed to address this need, can provide information regarding perceptual deficits arising from toxic insults, and can yield information regarding possible mechanisms of action. In addition, sensory evoked potential changes in laboratory animals can be predictive of sensory changes in humans. Further research is needed to better define the neural substrates of evoked potentials and their perceptual correlates so that the implications of evoked potential changes for the cellular targets, mechanisms of actions, and perceptual correlates of evoked potential changes can be better understood. More extensive use of these tools in human and animal toxicology is needed to better understand the ability of this methodology to detect sensory changes, and to predict human toxicity from animal data.