The effect of acute exposure to 950 MHz waves of GSM mobile phone system on consolidation of spatial memory in rat

authors:

avatar Majid Jadidi , avatar Mohammad Firoozabadi , * , avatar Ali RashidiPor , avatar Bahram Bolori , avatar Yaghob Fatollah


how to cite: Jadidi M, Firoozabadi M, RashidiPor A, Bolori B, Fatollah Y. The effect of acute exposure to 950 MHz waves of GSM mobile phone system on consolidation of spatial memory in rat. koomesh. 2005;6(4):e152071. 

Abstract

Introduction: With increasing in mobile communications, exposure to electromagnetic fields due to mobile handset and base station antenna has increased. This study was planned for evaluating the effects of short whole-body exposure to 950 MHz GSM electromagnetic field on consolidation phase of spatial memory. Materials and Methods: 33 naive male wistar rats (3 month old, 200 +15 g) were trained (10 trials at 2 blocks, with 3 minutes interval between blocks for one day) to locate a submerged platform in a circular water maze. Immediately after training, animals randomly divided into three groups: control n= 11, sham-exposed n=11 and exposed n=11. The last group was exposed to 950 MHz electromagnetic waves for 45 minutes in a circular plastic chamber. Performances of animals were tested 48 hours later by a 60 second probe test. Evaluation indexes were escape latency at target and opposite quadrants, swim speed and length. Results: Analysis of the probe data test indicated that, there were no significant difference between control, sham and 950 MHz exposed groups. Conclusion: Results of this study provide no evidence indicating that consolidation phase of spatial memory can be affected by the 45 min whole-body exposure to 950 MHz electromagnetic waves.