Skip to main content
Advertisement
  • Neurology.org
  • Journals
    • Neurology
    • Clinical Practice
    • Genetics
    • Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • Specialty Sites
    • COVID-19
    • Practice Current
    • Practice Buzz
    • Without Borders
    • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Innovations in Care Delivery
  • Collections
    • Topics A-Z
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Infographics
    • Patient Pages
    • Null Hypothesis
    • Translations
  • Podcast
  • CME
  • About
    • About the Journals
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Author Center

Advanced Search

Main menu

  • Neurology.org
  • Journals
    • Neurology
    • Clinical Practice
    • Genetics
    • Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • Specialty Sites
    • COVID-19
    • Practice Current
    • Practice Buzz
    • Without Borders
    • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Innovations in Care Delivery
  • Collections
    • Topics A-Z
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Infographics
    • Patient Pages
    • Null Hypothesis
    • Translations
  • Podcast
  • CME
  • About
    • About the Journals
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Author Center
  • Home
  • Latest Articles
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Residents & Fellows

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • My Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Neurology
Home
The most widely read and highly cited peer-reviewed neurology journal
  • Subscribe
  • My Alerts
  • Log in
Site Logo
  • Home
  • Latest Articles
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Residents & Fellows

Share

March 12, 2013; 80 (11 Supplement 3) NIH Toolbox for assessment of neurological and behavioral function

The NIH Toolbox

Setting a standard for biomedical research

Richard J. Hodes, Thomas R. Insel, Story C. Landis, On behalf of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
First published March 11, 2013, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182872e90
Richard J. Hodes
From the National Institute on Aging (R.J.H.), National Institute of Mental Health (T.R.I.), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (S.C.L.), Bethesda, MD.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Thomas R. Insel
From the National Institute on Aging (R.J.H.), National Institute of Mental Health (T.R.I.), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (S.C.L.), Bethesda, MD.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Story C. Landis
From the National Institute on Aging (R.J.H.), National Institute of Mental Health (T.R.I.), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (S.C.L.), Bethesda, MD.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
From the National Institute on Aging (R.J.H.), National Institute of Mental Health (T.R.I.), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (S.C.L.), Bethesda, MD.
Full PDF
Citation
The NIH Toolbox
Setting a standard for biomedical research
Richard J. Hodes, Thomas R. Insel, Story C. Landis, On behalf of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
Neurology Mar 2013, 80 (11 Supplement 3) S1; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182872e90

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Permissions

Make Comment

See Comments

Downloads
2394

Share

  • Article
  • Info & Disclosures
Loading

This special issue of Neurology® marks the unveiling of a multi-year effort to develop the NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIH Toolbox). Constructed based on state-of-the-art psychometric research and novel testing methods, this approach to functional neurologic measurement is as innovative in concept as it is in design. This initiative and the resulting set of instruments, supported through the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (NIH Blueprint) and built by a development team of more than 250 scientists from almost 100 academic institutions, promises to provide long overdue economies of scale and efficiency to the clinical research enterprise. The NIH Toolbox achieves that end by providing psychometrically sound, cutting-edge, adaptable measures that enable uniformity of measurement, data sharing, and integration of findings in the research setting.

Established in 2004, the NIH Blueprint employs a collaborative framework comprised of 15 institutes, centers, and offices to support research on the nervous system. A primary goal of the NIH Blueprint has been to create research tools and resources of particular benefit to the neuroscience community that would present challenges for any single institute, center, or investigator to develop individually. The NIH Toolbox provides a significant resource for clinical neuroscience research for several important reasons.

  • First, it establishes a standard approach to assess cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor function. At present, there are many clinical studies that collect information on aspects of neural function, but with little uniformity among the measures used to capture these constructs. This lack of common assessments hinders the ability to share and interpret research results. Use of the NIH Toolbox will enhance opportunities for comparison of data across studies and the integration of data from multiple studies.

  • Second, the NIH Toolbox creates an opportunity for economies of scale in the research enterprise. This set of well-validated measures promises to maximize the yield from diverse clinical studies by allowing a greater number of significant research questions regarding neurologic and behavioral health to be studied. Importantly, the instruments are designed to capture this information with minimal increment in subject burden and cost. The NIH Toolbox also promises to be an excellent resource for investigators outside the clinical neuroscience arena, for example in cardiovascular or cancer research, who now will have a readily available and easy-to-use set of measures to examine the impact of perturbations in non-neural systems on brain function.

  • Third, the NIH Toolbox allows for the adaptation of the measures over time without compromising the continuity of data collection. This dynamic feature guards against the impediments created by more typical “crystallized” measures and tolerates updating in response to advances in science or technology.

It is important to note that the entire range of NIH Toolbox instruments, scoring algorithms, and norms are available electronically and provided royalty-free for the research community (http://www.nihtoolbox.org). Further translation and normative activities as well as validation of the measures in specific patient populations are encouraged. We foresee the NIH Toolbox not only as a national, but also an international, resource. This is an invitation to researchers around the world to join in building our clinical neuroscience knowledge base with these newly assembled tools and, in doing so, advance global public health.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Richard J. Hodes: drafting/revising the manuscript. Thomas R. Insel: drafting/revising the manuscript. Story C. Landis: drafting/revising the manuscript.

STUDY FUNDING

The contract to develop the NIH Toolbox was funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, NIH, under Contract No. HHS-N-260-2006-00007-C.

DISCLOSURE

The authors report no disclosures relevant to the manuscript. Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures.

  • © 2013 American Academy of Neurology

Disputes & Debates: Rapid online correspondence

No comments have been published for this article.
Comment

NOTE: All authors' disclosures must be entered and current in our database before comments can be posted. Enter and update disclosures at http://submit.neurology.org. Exception: replies to comments concerning an article you originally authored do not require updated disclosures.

  • Stay timely. Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
  • Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
  • 200 words maximum.
  • 5 references maximum. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
  • 5 authors maximum. Exception: replies can include all original authors of the article.
  • Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.

More guidelines and information on Disputes & Debates

Compose Comment

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
NOTE: The first author must also be the corresponding author of the comment.
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Publishing Agreement
NOTE: All authors, besides the first/corresponding author, must complete a separate Disputes & Debates Submission Form and provide via email to the editorial office before comments can be posted.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

You May Also be Interested in

Back to top
  • Article
    • AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
    • STUDY FUNDING
    • DISCLOSURE
  • Info & Disclosures
Advertisement

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.

Topics Discussed

  • All Clinical Neurology
  • Clinical neurology examination

Alert Me

  • Alert me when eletters are published
Neurology: 96 (15)

Articles

  • Ahead of Print
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Popular Articles
  • Translations

About

  • About the Journals
  • Ethics Policies
  • Editors & Editorial Board
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

Submit

  • Author Center
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Information for Reviewers
  • AAN Guidelines
  • Permissions

Subscribers

  • Subscribe
  • Activate a Subscription
  • Sign up for eAlerts
  • RSS Feed
Site Logo
  • Visit neurology Template on Facebook
  • Follow neurology Template on Twitter
  • Visit Neurology on YouTube
  • Neurology
  • Neurology: Clinical Practice
  • Neurology: Genetics
  • Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • AAN.com
  • AANnews
  • Continuum
  • Brain & Life
  • Neurology Today

Wolters Kluwer Logo

Neurology | Print ISSN:0028-3878
Online ISSN:1526-632X

© 2021 American Academy of Neurology

  • Privacy Policy
  • Feedback
  • Advertise