FAILURE TO PRODUCE TASTE-AVERSION LEARNING IN RATS EXPOSED TO STATIC ELECTRIC-FIELDS AND AIR IONS

Taste-aversion (TA) learning was measured to determine whether exposur e to high-voltage direct current (HVdc) static electric fields can pro duce TA learning in male Long Evans rats. Fifty-six rats were randomly distributed into four groups of 14 rats each. All rats were placed on a 20 min/day drinking schedule for 12 consecutive days prior to recei ving five conditioning trials. During the conditioning trials, access to 0.1% sodium saccharin-flavored water was given for 20 min, followed 30 min later by one of four treatments. Two groups of 14 rats each we re individually exposed to static electric fields and air ions, one gr oup to +75 kV/m (+2 x 10(5) air ions/cm(3)) and the other group to -75 kV/m (-2 x 10(5) air ions/cm(3)). Two other groups of 14 rats each se rved as sham-exposed controls, with the following variation in one of the sham-exposed groups: This group was subdivided into two subsets of seven rats each, so that a positive control group could be included t o validate the experimental design. The positive control group (n = 7) was injected with cyclophosphamide 25 mg/kg, i.p., 30 min after acces s to saccharin-flavored water on conditioning days, whereas the other subset of seven rats was similarly injected with an equivalent volume of saline. Access to saccharin-flavored water on conditioning days was followed by the treatments described above and was alternated daily w ith water ''recovery'' sessions in which the rats received access to w ater for 20 min in the home cage without further treatment. Following the last water-recovery session, a 20 min, two-bottle preference test (between water and saccharin-flavored water) was administered to each group. The positive control group did show TA learning, thus validatin g the experimental protocol. No saccharin-flavored water was consumed in the two-bottle preference test by the cyclophosphamide-injected, sh am-exposed group compared to 74% consumed by the saline-injected sham- exposed controls (P < .0001). Saccharin-preference data for the static field-exposed groups showed no TA learning compared to data for sham- exposed controls. In summary, exposure to intense static electric fiel ds and air ions did not produce TA learning as assessed by this partic ular design. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.