Spatial memory perfomance of wistar rats exposed to mobile phone

introduction: with the tremendous increase in number of mobile phone users world wide, the possible risks of this technology have become a serious concern. objective: we tested the effects of mobile phone exposure on spatial memory performance. materials and methods: male wistar rats (10-12 weeks old) were exposed to 50 missed calls/day for 4 weeks from a gsm (900/1800mhz) mobile phone in vibratory mode (no ring tone). after the experimental period, the animals were tested for spatial memory performance using the morris water maze test. results: both phone exposed and control animals showed a significant decrease in escape time with training. phone exposed animals had significantly (~3 times) higher mean latency to reach the target quadrant and spent significantly (~2 times) less time in the target quadrant than age- and sex-matched controls. conclusion: mobile phone exposure affected the acquisition of learned responses in wistar rats. this in turn points to the poor spatial navigation and the object place configurations of the phone-exposed animals.