Acute exposure to a 50 Hz magnetic field impairs consolidation of spatial memory in rats

• Published in: Neurobiology of learning and memory 2007-11, Vol.88 (4), p.387-392
• Main Authors: Jadidi, Majid, Firoozabadi, Seyed Mohammad, Rashidy-Pour, Ali, Sajadi, Ahmad Ali, Sadeghi, Hassan, Taherian, Abbas Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute exposure; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Consolidation; Electric Stimulation - instrumentation; Electric Stimulation - methods; Electromagnetic Fields - adverse effects; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hippocampus - physiology; Hippocampus - radiation effects; Magnetic field; Male; Maze Learning - physiology; Maze Learning - radiation effects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Retention (Psychology) - physiology; Retention (Psychology) - radiation effects; Retrieval; Space Perception - physiology; Space Perception - radiation effects; Spatial Behavior - physiology; Spatial Behavior - radiation effects; Spatial memory; Statistics, Nonparametric; Water maze
• ISSN: 1074-7427; 1095-9564
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2007.07.010

This study was planned to evaluate the effect of an exposure to magnetic fields on consolidation and retrieval of hippocampus dependent spatial memory using a water maze. In Experiments 1 and 2, rats were trained in a hidden version (spatial) of water maze task with two blocks of four trials. The retention of spatial memory was evaluated 48 h later. Exposure to a 50 Hz 8 mT, but not 2 mT magnetic fields for 20 min immediately after training impaired retention performance. The same time exposure shortly before retention testing had no effect. In Experiment 3, rats were trained in a cued version of water maze with two blocks of four trials. Exposure to magnetic field at 8 mT for 20 min immediately after training did not impair retention performance. These findings indicate that acute exposure to a 50 Hz magnetic field at 8 mT for short time can impair consolidation of spatial memory.