Altered operant behavior of adult rats after perinatal exposure to a 60‐Hz electromagnetic field

Abstract

Rats were sham exposed or exposed perinatally to a 60‐Hz electromagnetic field, 22 days in utero and the first 8 days post partum. Each of the 30 once‐daily exposures was 20 h in duration. The electric component of the field was vertical 30 kV/m rms, and the magnetic field component was 100 μTG rms. Later, as adults, male rats were trained to emit an operant response when reinforced with food on a multiple, random‐interval schedule. Exposed rats (N = 21) gradually came to respond at significantly lower rates than did sham‐exposed controls (N = 20). This finding was confirmed and extended in a second, independently performed experiment. After a sequence including operant conditioning followed by experimental extinction of responding and then by a suspension of conditioning and finally by more than a month of reconditioning, slower rates of responding were found to persist in the adult animals. The evidence of altered behavior several months after combined, fetal‐neonatal exposure to an electromagnetic field presents an interesting contrast with other findings: Field‐exposed rats did not differ from sham‐exposed rats in terms of body mass, physical appearance, grossly observed activity level, or incidence of disease.