Bioelectromagnetics.
2004 Jan;25(1):49-57. |
Exécution de labyrinthe par des rats après irradiation
répétée à de bas niveau de micro-ondes.
Radial arm
maze performance of rats following repeated low level microwave radiation
exposure.
Cobb BL, Jauchem JR, Adair
ER.
United States Air Force
Research Laboratory, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Directed Energy
Bioeffects Division, Radio Frequency Radiation Branch, Brooks AFB, Texas, USA.
Brenda.Cobb@Brooks.af.mil
We examined the possibility of changes in "working" memory of rats
following whole body exposure to microwave (MW) radiation. During each of 10
days, we exposed rats within circularly polarized waveguides for 45 min to 2450
MHz fields at whole body SARs of 0.6 W/kg (2 micros pulses, 500 pps), followed
by testing in a 12 arm, radial arm maze (RAM). Rats received a preexposure
injection of one of three psychoactive compounds or saline, to determine
whether a compound would interact with MW exposure to affect performance in the
maze. Error rate, i.e., reentry into arms already visited, and time to
criterion data for 10 consecutive days of testing were analyzed by a three way
analysis of variance (ANOVA) using main effects of "exposure" and
"drug" and a repeated factor of "test day." Our alpha limit
for significance was P <.05. Analyzes of error rates revealed no significant
exposure effect, no significant drug effect and no significant interaction
between the two main factors. There was a significant difference in test days,
as expected, with repeated test-trial days, which indicates that learning was
accomplished. There was no significant interaction of test day and the other
two factors. The results of our analyzes of time to criterion data included no
significant exposure effect, a significant drug effect, a significant test day
effect, and a significant interaction between drug and test day factors. Post
hoc analyzes of the drug factor revealed that rats treated with either
physostigmine or nalrexone hydrochloride, took significantly longer to complete
the maze task than rats pretreated with saline or with naloxone methodide. We
conclude that there is no evidence from the current study that exposure to of
MW radiation under parameters examined caused decrements in the ability of rats
to learn the spatial memory task.