Thermal basis for disruption of operant behavior by microwaves in three animal species

Technical Report · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1982

OSTI ID:5679184

de Lorge, J O

A large variety of microwave producing devices are used in contemporary naval communications and weapons systems. Public and scientific concern about potential biological effects of microwave irradiation such as produced by these various devices requires documentations of such effects. Currently, the only well documented direct effect of microwaves is heating of the exposed organism. The present report is of a series of studies whose aim was to explore several microwave frequencies and their effect on performance and simultaneously to investigate the relationship to core heating in the exposed animals. Three difficult sized species of animals were used so that generalization to larger animals could be made. Rats, squirrel monkeys, and rhesus monkeys showed consistent effects of 60-minute exposures to microwaves when their body temperatures were increased at least 1 C above baseline temperatures. Performance was not reliably affected when body temperatures remained below this level. Greater intensities of microwaves were required to influence the animals' temperature and behavior as the animal size increased. A direct relationship between frequency and power density was observed in the rhesus monkey; e. g., as the frequency of the microwaves increased, the power density needed to affect behavior and temperature also increased.

• Research Organization: Naval Aerospace Medical Inst., Pensacola, FL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5679184
• Report Number(s): AD-A-127370/5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
BEHAVIOR
BIOLOGICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
BODY TEMPERATURE
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
HEATING
IRRADIATION
MONKEYS
RATS
ANIMALS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
MAMMALS
PRIMATES
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIATIONS
RODENTS
VERTEBRATES
560400* - Other Environmental Pollutant Effects