Study on behavior of female rat 3 months after electromagnetic pulse irradiation

AIM: The present paper investigated the effect on behavior of female rat 3 months after electromagnetic pulse irradiation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mature female rats were randomly divided into control group and EMP irradiation group. Rats in the EMP irradiation group were exposed to EMP. The field intensity was 100 KV/m with 1000 pulses. The changes of behavior were observed with step through test and open-field test in rats 3 months after electromagnetic pulse irradiation. Memory retention, Error scores, Accumulative Distance (AD), Accumulative Distance of Leaving the Border (AD_LB), Accumulative Distance in the User Defined Area (AD_UDA), AD inside the inner circle(AD_IC), AT of Resting (AT_REST), AT of Walking (AT_WALK) and AD of Walking(AD_WALK) were recorded. RESULTS: Analysis of step through test indicated that the EMP irradiation group has a significant decrease in memory retention and a significant increase in error scores of the entries into the dark compartment compared with control group (P<0.05). Analysis of open-field test indicated that the activity of the EMP irradiation group has a significant increase compared with control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: It is inferred that Electromagnetic pulse irradiation can cause some disorders of behavior of rats, which may induce a significant decrease in the ability of learning memory and a significant increase in the activity in rats 3 months after EMP irradiation.