FOLLOWING MPTP administration, monkeys manifest cognitive deficits on
tasks known to assess the fronto-striatal system; there are, however,
no data regarding long-term cognitive effects. In this study, we exami
ned the cognitive abilities of monkeys 10 years after MPTP administrat
ion. MPTP-treated monkeys and age-matched controls performed a spatial
delayed response task with fixed and random delays. The MPTP-treated
monkeys were impaired in both versions of the task. Both groups perfor
med at the same level at very short delays suggesting that the nature
of the impairment is related to a spatial memory deficit that is still
apparent 10 years after treatment. These results suggest that, like P
arkinson's patients, the MPTP-treated primates display spatial deficit
s.