Learning and behavioral abnormalities in the seizure-prone baboon.

A high incidence of behavioral and learning difficulties has been found in juvenile seizure-prone baboons presented with a graded series of operant behavioral task challenges. The animals fell into two distinct groups based upon the rate at which their operant performance was able to develop, the amount of day-to-day variability in performance level, their ability to tolerate change, and the frequency of appearance of symptoms of emotionality. The association between learning problems and behavior problems in these seizure-prone baboons may correlate well with the deficits in both intellectual performance and social behavior that have been reported in some studies with human epileptics. In addition, the data suggest a relationship between familial factors and trainability, and between predisposition to seizures and trainability.