Two experiments examined the effects of cholinergic basal forebrain lesions by intraventricular and intrahippocampal infusions of the immunotoxin 192 IgG-saporin on recognition memory in an operant delayed-non-matching-to-position task in rats. Intraventricular infusions produced extensive reductions in cortical and hippocampal choline acetyltransferase activity in the first experiment. Behaviourally, a mixed delay-dependent/independent accuracy deficit and increased biased responding was observed post-lesioning. Thus, both mnemonic as well as non-mnemonic processes were affected by the lesion. This performance deficit was indistinguishable from the impairment induced by acute intraventricular injections of the choline uptake inhibitor hemicholinium-3, which suggests that cholinergic damage induced by 192 IgG-saporin disrupted performance. In the second experiment more discrete intrahippocampal 192 IgG-saporin lesions were made, which reduced hippocampal choline acetyltransferase activity about 57%, although this reduction was not as extensive as following intraventricular injections. Although intrahippocampal lesions also impaired non-matching accuracy, this effect failed to reach significance during most stages of the experiment. Scopolamine just failed to significantly impair (P = 0.053) performance in hippocampal lesioned rats more than in controls. The nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine did not affect the lesion-induced changes in performance. These results suggest that the cholinergic basal forebrain, including the septohippocampal system, is important for the mediation of recognition memory, and muscarinic receptor-mediated mechanisms may be of greater importance than alterations of nicotinic receptor-mediated processes in the septohippocampal system.