Positive and Negative Effects of Environmental Chemicals on Brain Function in Rodents

Abstract

We investigated the effect of environmental chemicals on exploratory behavior and emotional behavior in Wistar rats, using behavioral task such as open-field test, elevated plus maze test and forced swimming test. We used green odor and jasmine tea odor as natural environmental chemicals and 1-bromopropane (1-BP) and bisphenol-A (BPA) as artificial environmental chemicals. Green odor did not affect sensory-motor system but attenuated swimming-induced decrease in activity suggesting its anti-fatigue effect. Jasmine tea odor increased exploratory behavior in normal physiological condition. On the other hand, prenatal exposure 1-BP and BPA impaired sexual differentiation of exploratory behavior and BPA increases depression-like behavior. The results suggest that animal behavior are highly sensitive to external environmental chemicals especially during developing period and natural environmental chemicals such as plant-derived odors have beneficial effects but some artificial chemicals have aversive effects on rat's behaviors.