Effect of acute tritiated water (HTO) exposure on Maze learning in adult Swiss albino mice

Brain is the most important organ as it controls and co- ordinates all the activities of our body. Reports on neuroethological investigations in mice particularly associated with learning and memory after radiation exposure are very scanty. Hence, present investigation is an attempt to examine the effects of low dose tritiated water (HTO) acute exposure on adult Swiss albino mice in the light of behavioral parameters. Swiss albino adult male mice were trained in a Hebb William’s Maze, model D. When the mice had learned the Maze, they were injected with tritiated water and then the same batch (pre learned mice) again tested for memory retention. Our results clearly show that the adult mice learned the Maze in ten trials. On day ten of the experiment mice were injected with dose 111.0 kBq/gm. bd. wt. tritiated water. Immediately after the exposure, the mice started taking relatively more time to reach the goal which continued till trials 11, 12 and 13 of the experiment. However, after this, a reversal in the learned performance was observed in most of the experimental mice whereby the learned activity returned to a near normal on trials 14 and 15. From 16th trial onwards, the performance of the irradiated mouse was found to be even superior over the prelearned mice though, their pattern did not show the steady state as was evident just prior to HTO injection. The findings from our experiments signify that the possible alterations in behaviour in adult Swiss albino mice after low doses of acute tritiated water exposure cannot be safely ruled out.