Investigation of Potential Behavioral Effects of Exposure to 60 Hz Electromagnetic Fields

摘要

In order to analyze potential behavioral effects that may be produced by exposures to 60 Hz electric and magnetic fields, animals were exposed to a range of linearly polarized magnetic fields of .5 to 5 gauss, with and without the combination of a 1 kv/m electric field. The animals performed on a multiple fixed-ratio (FR) differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) reinforcement schedule that required responding on a lever to produce food pellets. The effects of the above fields were also studied on the multiple FR DRL schedule performance of animals administered representative drugs from two psychoactive drug classes, amphetamine and chlordiazepoxide. Under the present experimental exposure conditions and durations, exposures to the 60 Hz electromagnetic fields produced no systematic changes in the behavior of the animals of the multiple FR DRL schedule. No systematic effects were observed on the behavioral effects of either amphetamine or chlordiazepoxide, at the doses explored, by any of the exposures to the magnetic fields alone or in combination with the electric field. When animals were exposed to a low-level (.5 gauss) 60 Hz magnetic field combined with a low-level static magnetic field (about half the earth's field) they consistently exhibited changes in the rate and pattern of responding during the DRL component of the multiple FR DRL reinforcement schedule.