Spatial Learning and Memory-What's TLE Got To Do With It?

Cognitive impairment is a significant comorbidity of epilepsy. At present, the molecular/cellular mechanisms that underlie these cognitive impairments remain unknown. It seems likely that a complete understanding at the molecular/cellular level will require the use of rodent models. A number of rodent models of epilepsy are used to study cognition in a variety of behavioral tasks. This review presents a brief overview of two commonly used tasks (the Morris water maze and the radial arm maze) that have been used to assess spatial learning/memory in two chemoconvulsant models of temporal lobe epilepsy.