Scientists know that domoic acid can alter the sea lions’ hippocampus. This is a part of the brain important to memory. The toxin, here, can cause seizures, which then cause brain damage. Now researchers have evidence that this brain damage impairs the animals’ spatial memory. This is the type of memory that helps an animal understand where it is. It not only helps a sea lion find food, but also navigate in the ocean. There are also signs that there could be even more widespread harm to brain function, says Peter Cook. He was reporting new data, here, this week at the Society for Marine Mammalogy Conference. Cook is aneuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta. He led the new study.