Effect of diet on the disruption of operant responding at different ages following exposure to 56Fe particles

Abstract

Rats were exposed to 2.0 Gy of 56Fe particles to study the relationship between age and diet in the heavy particle-induced disruption of performance on an ascending fixed-ratio task. Irradiation produced a disruption of operant responding in rats tested 5 and 8 months after exposure, which was prevented by maintaining the rats on a diet containing strawberry, but not blueberry, extract. When tested 13 and 18 months after irradiation there were no differences in performance between the radiated rats maintained on control, strawberry or blueberry diets. These observations suggest that the beneficial effects of antioxidant diets may be dependent upon the age of testing. © Springer 2005.