Factors Affecting the Performance of Primates Following a 2700-Rad Pulsed Dose of Ionizing Radiation.
Abstract
The performance of eight monkeys (Macaca mulatta), trained at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine to operate a primate equilibrium platform (PEP), was tested following a single pulse, whole-body 2700-rad (plus or minus 200 rads) dose of neutron-gamma radiation at the AFRRI-TRIGA reactor (n/g = 0.5:1, pulse half-width of 50 msec). The results were compared to: (1) PEP-trained animals exposed to a 2500-rad pulse of neutron-gamma radiation at the White Sands Missile Range fast burst reactor (n/g = 9:1, pulse half-width of 40 microsec), and (2) animals trained at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) to perform a simple discrete avoidance task and then irradiated (2800 rads) in the AFRRI-TRIGA reactor. The two groups of animals exposed in the higher gamma field of the TRIGA reactor exhibited a behavioral decrement soon after irradiation which was more severe than the decrement observed in animals exposed to the higher neutron field of the White Sands reactor. Stimulus response differences in the behavioral tasks employed were manifested in a slower recovery rate for the PEP-trained animals exposed in the TRIGA reactor compared to the AFRRI animals trained to perform the discrete avoidance task and irradiated in the same reactor. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1972
- Accession Number
- AD0759016
Entities
People
- C. R. Curran
- D. J. Barnes
- D. M. Verrelli
- G. C. Brown
- S. J. Allen
Organizations
- Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute