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

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.