Lagged association between geomagnetic activity and diminished nocturnal pain thresholds in mice
✍ Scribed by M.A. Galic; M.A. Persinger
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 76 KB
- Volume
- 28
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0197-8462
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
A wide variety of behaviors in several species has been statistically associated with the natural variations in geomagnetism. To examine whether changes in geomagnetic activity are associated with pain thresholds, adult mice were exposed to a hotplate paradigm once weekly for 52 weeks during the dark cycle. Planetary A index values from the previous 6 days of a given hotplate session were correlated with the mean response latency for subjects to the thermal stimulus. We found that hotplate latency was significantly (P < 0.05) and inversely correlated (rho = −0.25) with the daily geomagnetic intensity 3 days prior to testing. Therefore, if the geomagnetic activity was greater 3 days before a given hotplate trial, subjects tended to exhibit shorter response latencies, suggesting lower pain thresholds or less analgesia. These results are supported by related experimental findings and suggest that natural variations in geomagnetic intensity may influence nociceptive behaviors in mice. Bioelectromagnetics 28:577–579, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.