General adaptation syndrome and magnetostatic field: effects on sleep and delayed reinforcement of low rate.

In order to study the effects of a magnetostatic field on the organism, continuous exposure was applied and the resulting effects were observed for a period of 20 days. The Ss were four rats which were continually exposed, one by one, to a vertical field of 2800 oersted for uninterrupted periods of time. In a first series of experiments, the variation of the sleeping period for each of the four SS was observed. An evolution quite characteristic of the different phases of the general adaptation syndrome was noted: reaction, counterreaction, and resistance. The same phenomenon was observed in the response under delayed reinforcement of low rate (DRL) at 5 and 10 seconds. In each case, a slowdown of the weight growth was noted. One can thus consider the magnetostatic field as an agent responsible for a nonspecific general effect similar to other stressing agents. These behavioral observations suggest a verification of these effects on the endocrine system and illustrate the necessity of long exposures for the study of specific and nonspecific effects of the exposure to the magnetostatic field.