Many naturally occurring toxins, as well as pesticides, metals, and other compounds that occur in our environment from anthropogenic activities, stimulate or antagonize neuro-receptors to produce acute and/or chronic toxicities. Recent advances in laboratory instrumentation and the availability of a variety of radiolabeled ligands and type-specific drugs for numerous receptors make it possible to easily screen large numbers of samples and detect changes in sensitivity and density of receptor types and subtypes. A receptor binding assay for examining the chronic dietary toxicity of parathion will be used as a model to describe the methodology.