Electromagnetic fields are ubiquitous in the environment. Human exposure to intermediate frequency (IF) fields is increasing due to applications like electronic article surveillance systems, wireless power transfer, and induction heating cooking hobs. However, there are limited data on possible health effects of exposure to IF magnetic fields (MF). In the present study, we set out to assess cognitive and behavioural effects of IF MF in mice exposed during prenatal and early postnatal periods. Pregnant female mice were exposed continuously to 7.5 kHz MFs at 12 and 120 μT, from mating until weaning of pups. Sham exposed pregnant mice were used as a control group. A behavioural teratology study was conducted on the male offspring at two months of age to detect possible effects on the developing nervous system. Body weight development did not differ between the exposure groups. The exposure did not alter spontaneous motor activity when exploring a novel cage or anxiety in novelty-suppressed feeding or marble burying tests. Improved performance in the Rotarod task was observed in the 12 µT group, while the 120 μT exposure group swam more slowly than the sham exposed group in the Morris swim navigation task. However, indices of learning and memory (path length and escape latency during task acquisition and search bias during the probe test) did not differ between the exposure groups. Furthermore, the passive avoidance task did not indicate any impairment of long-term memory over a 48 h interval in the exposed groups. In a post-mortem histopathological analysis, there was no evidence for an effect of IF MF exposure on astroglial reactivity or hippocampal neurogenesis. The results suggest that the IF MF used did not have detrimental effects on spatial learning and memory or histological markers of tissue reaction. The two statistically significant findings that were observed (improved performance in the Rotarod task in the 12 µT group and decreased swimming speed in the 120 µT group) are likely to be chance findings, as they do not form an internally consistent, dose-dependent pattern indicative of specific developmental effects.

电磁场在环境中无处不在。由于诸如电子商品监视系统，无线功率传输和感应加热烹饪炉灶之类的应用，人们对中频（IF）领域的接触正在增加。但是，关于暴露于IF磁场（MF）可能对健康产生的影响的数据有限。在本研究中，我们着手评估IF MF对产前和产后早期暴露的小鼠的认知和行为影响。从交配到幼仔断奶，怀孕的雌性小鼠在12和120μT下连续暴露于7.5 kHz MF。假暴露的怀孕小鼠用作对照组。对两个月大的雄性后代进行了行为畸形学研究，以发现其对发育中的神经系统可能产生的影响。暴露组之间的体重发展没有差异。当探索新的笼子或在新奇抑制的喂养或大理石掩埋试验中感到焦虑时，暴露不会改变自发的运动活动。在12 µT组中，观察到Rotarod任务的性能得到了改善，而在Morris游泳导航任务中，120μT暴露组的游泳速度慢于假接触组。但是，暴露组之间的学习和记忆指标（任务获取过程中的路径长度和逃避潜伏期以及探针测试期间的搜索偏向）没有差异。此外，被动回避任务并未显示暴露组在48小时间隔内长期记忆的任何损害。在验尸组织病理学分析中，没有证据表明IF MF暴露对星形胶质反应性或海马神经发生有影响。结果表明，所用的中频MF对空间学习和记忆或组织反应的组织学标志没有不利影响。观察到的两个统计学上显着的发现（在12 µT组的Rotarod任务中表现改善，在120 µT组的游泳速度降低），可能是偶然发现，因为它们没有形成内部一致的剂量依赖性模式指示特定的发育影响。