Investigation of effects of 60-Hz electric and magnetic fields on operant and social behavior and on the neuroendocrine system of nonhuman primates: Neuroendocrine portion of Experiment IV. Quarterly report No. 38

摘要

This quarterly report covers the neuroendocrine Portion of Experiment IV. Serum melatonin concentration was measured in individual baboons, each implanted with a chronically indwelling venous cannula. As in Experiment III the system of six automatic blood samplers was used to achieve undisturbed, 24 hr per day, simultaneous blood sampling from six individual subjects. The objective of the neuroendocrine portion of Experiment IV was to determine if 30 kV/m electric and 1.0 G magnetic field (E/MF) exposure produced a 50% decline in nocturnal serum melatonin concentration. Other groups of subjects were tested concurrently during Experiment IV to assess E/MF effects on group social and individual operant behavior. The results of these experiments will be covered respectively in the next two quarterly reports. The results of Experiment IV, as was the case with the result of Experiments III and IIIA, provide little or no evidence that E/MF exposure, under the conditions of these experiments, affects nocturnal serum melatonin concentrations of nonhuman primates. Together the negative results of Experiments III, IIA and IV indicate that day-time exposure of primates to slow-onset/offset, regularly-scheduled E/MF does not produce melatonin suppression, strongly suggesting that such exposure would not affect human melatonin either. However, before concluding that E/MF exposure in general has no effect on primate melatonin, nightime exposure needs to be examined, and the possibility, suggested by the Pilot Experiment, that fast onset/offset, irregularly-scheduled E/MF can completely suppress melatonin needs to be investigated.