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Updated: Jul 26, 2026
Laboratory Estimation of Net Trophic Transfer Efficiencies of PCB Congeners to Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) from Its Prey
Published on: August 29, 2014
Hyperactivity and impulsiveness in rats fed diets supplemented with either Aroclor 1248 or PCB-contaminated St.
D F Berger1, J P Lombardo, P M Jeffers
1Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Cortland, PO Box 2000, Cortland, NY 13045, USA. bergerd@cortland.edu
Abstract:
We examined whether exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) around puberty would produce hyperactivity and impulsiveness in adult Sprague-Dawley rats. Randomly assigned groups consumed food containing environmental concentrations of Aroclor 1248, PCB-contaminated St. Lawrence River carp, or corn oil (control). All received operant training to a final multiple (mult) 120-s, fixed interval (FI), 5-min extinction (EXT) schedule. Pressing rates of both exposed groups for drops of water averaged more than 1.5 times that of controls, especially toward the end of the 120-s interval. This overactivity included bursts with short (< or =0.5 s) interresponse times (IRTs), behavior characteristic of hyperactive boys and genetically hyperactive rats. The exposed groups also overreacted to the decreases in reinforcement density associated with transition to the final schedule. The results were interpreted in terms of the possible alterations in the animals' reinforcement mechanisms and the possible neurotoxic effects of PCB exposure.
