Table 1.

Relationship Between the Fornix and Cognitive Performance

Tasks	Summary of findings	References
Trace and contextual fear conditioning	• Reliable deficits in nonhuman species. • No studies in humans.	Ji and Maren, 2008; Maren and Fanselow, 1997; Oswald et al., 2007; Phillips and LeDoux, 1995
Reversal learning	• Reliable deficits in nonhuman species. • No studies in humans.	Hirsh and Segal, 1972; Wiig et al., 1996; Wilson et al., 2007
Spatial memory and spatial navigation	• Reliable deficits in nonhuman species.	Aggleton et al., 1992; Bussey et al., 2000; Buckley et al., 2004, 2008; De Bruin et al., 2001; Easton et al., 2002; Ennaceur et al., 1996; Ennaceur and Aggleton, 1997; Gaffan, 1994; Hirsh and Segal, 1972; Kwok, 2006; Kwok and Buckley, 2010; Kwok et al., 2015; Markowska et al., 1989; Murray et al., 1989; O'Keefe et al., 1975; Parker and Gaffan, 1997; Walker and Olton, 1979; Whishaw and Tomie, 1997
Traditional episodic memory tasks, for example, WMS, CVLT, etc.	• Reliable anterograde amnesia for all materials after fornix damage.	D'Esposito et al., 1995; Gaffan et al., 1991; Hodges and Carpenter, 1991; Moudgil et al., 2000; Park et al., 2000; Poreh et al., 2006; Tsivilis et al., 2008
Remote episodic memory/autobiographical memory	• Intact memory for preoperative learning in nonhuman primates. • Emerging evidence for link between the fornix and remote episodic, but not semantic, memory in humans.	Buckley et al., 2004; Buckley et al., 2008; Gaffan et al., 2001; Gilboa et al., 2006; Hodges and Carpenter, 1991; Poreh et al., 2006; Tsivilis et al., 2008
Object and scene perception/recognition tasks: (delayed)-(non)-matching-to-sample, spontaneous object recognition, object face, or scene discrimination	• Mixed findings. Fornix transection does not produce an impairment in simple object perception or recognition tasks. • Emerging evidence that the fornix is implicated in some types of complex visuospatial processing.	Deficits: Bachevalier et al., 1985; Browning et al., 2010; Easton et al., 2002; Gaffan, 1994; Wilson et al., 2008 No deficits: Bussey et al., 2000; D'Esposito et al., 1995; Ennaceur et al., 1996; Ennaceur and Aggleton, 1997; Gaffan et al., 1991; Gaffan, 1992; Markowska et al., 1989; Wilson et al., 2007

This table includes findings from nonhuman animals and lesion studies in humans. For findings from diffusion imaging studies in humans, see Table 2.

CVLT, California Verbal Learning Task; WMS, Weschler Memory Scale.