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60‐Hz electric fields: Detection by female rats
Author(s) -
Stern Sander,
Laties Victor G.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.2250060110
Subject(s) - electric field , field (mathematics) , adult male , lever , field strength , open field , biomedical engineering , medicine , physics , mathematics , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
Female rats were trained to detect a vertical, 60‐Hz electric field using the same apparatus and procedure we used previously to study behavioral detection of the field by male rats. Each rat was trained individually to press a lever in the presence of the field and not to press in its absence. Correct detections occasionally produced a food pellet. The probability of detecting the field increased as field strength increased. The threshold of detection —ie, the field strength required for detections at a probability of 0.5 after correction for errors—varied among rats between 3 and 10 kV/m. Behavioral detection by female rats was indistinguishable from that by male rats.