Memory and hippocampal function as targets for neurotoxic substances

The functional consequences of neurotoxins can be assessed only by behavioral testing. Impairments of recent memory are often produced by any damage to the hippocampus or related neuroanatomical structures. The ways of assessing recent memory in animal models are reviewed, with specific examples of test procedures. The effects of different types of neurotoxins on hippocampal function as assessed by performance in these tasks indicates the ways in which sensitive behavioral testing procedures can be designed to describe the functional consequences of neurotoxins that impair recent memory and produce neuropathology in the septohippocampal system.