Research Tools | Blueprint for Neuroscience

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NITRC is a free one-stop-shop for science researchers that need resources such as neuroimaging analysis software, publicly available data sets, or computing power.

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The NIH Toolbox provides brief, easy-to-administer tests of motor, cognitive, sensory and emotional function that can be used by researchers and clinicians in a variety of settings, with a particular emphasis on measuring outcomes both in longitudinal epidemiologic studies and prevention or intervention trials. The battery has been normed and validated across the lifespan in subjects ages 3-85 and its use ensures that assessment methods and results can be used for comparisons across existing and future studies. By providing a “common currency” for the study of neurological research, the NIH Toolbox enables economies of scale and enhances efficiency. The NIH Toolbox is capable of monitoring neurological and behavioral function over time and measuring key constructs across developmental stages. The NIH works directly with Northwestern University to distribute and maintain the NIH Toolbox. 

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The NIH Infant and Toddler Toolbox (aka the “NIH Baby Toolbox” or NBT) is a neurodevelopmental measurement tool for both research and clinical use in children 1- to 42-months of age and primarily includes direct/objective child assessment but also parent/guardian report, where appropriate. The NIH Baby Toolbox is designed largely from existing, published, and validated tests and protocols that have been used and accepted in the cognitive-, social-, behavioral-, and neuroscience-developmental fields. The NIH Baby Toolbox is inexpensive to obtain, easy to administer within a relatively brief time frame appropriate to the population being studied (35-75 minutes), and able to capture multiple domains of neurodevelopment. These domains include: Cognition & Executive Function, Language, Numeracy/Early Mathematics, Self-Regulation, Social Functioning, and Motor function. This work represents an extension of the current and widely used NIH Toolbox® for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function suite of assessment tools for use in persons 3 years to 85 years of age. The NIH Baby Toolbox uses an iPad to enable innovative, direct assessment technologies, such as built-in eye-tracking and short clips of video recording to enable accurate, objective scoring of behaviors, and device recorded reaction times and speed of habituation. Computer-assisted item scoring automatically generates component scores (raw, change-sensitive, and norm-referenced scores). The complete battery is available in both English and Spanish.

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Since 2013, the NIH NeuroBioBank has catalyzed scientific discovery through the centralization of resources aimed at the collection and distribution of human post-mortem brain tissue.