The Role of Behavioural Toxicity in Risk Assessment

Abstract

Behaviour is now established as a fundamental dimension of toxicity and risk assessment. It emerged as a criterion of adverse effects because many questions about health risks centred on measures such as IQ and other neuropsychological indices. Methylmercury and lead risks are quantified in such terms and clinical entities such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are basically behavioural disorders. Behavioural methods, as a consequence, are essential research tools for determining the risks of exposure to environmental chemicals, for studying the mechanisms by which drugs act on nervous system diseases and for determining the potential of new pharmaceuticals to alter behaviour, either therapeutically or adversely. To fulfil these roles effectively, behavioural research must examine a variety of end points. These range from naturalistic behaviours, such as those involved in reproduction, to activity patterns, to motor and sensory function and to complex cognitive processes. At the same time, behavioural methods must encompass techniques applicable to both laboratory animals and humans.