Neurobehavioral effects of repeated sublethal soman in primates

Juvenile male baboons were trained to perform a match-to-sample discrimination task; effects of repeated sublethal exposure to the organophosphate nerve gas, soman, upon task performance were then explored. Both acute and subchronic exposure schedules were employed, and soman potency was verified by assay of soman-induced inhibition of acetylcholinesterase activity in whole blood, plasma, and erythrocytes. A characteristic profile of behavioral effects encompassing immediate, persistent, and delayed effects was observed. Immediate dose-related effects of soman included: increases in mean session response time, increases in errors, and decreases in extra responses. Seizures were also observed at the highest dose of soman employed (5 micrograms/kg). The increase in mean session response time was due to intermittent lapses in responding to stimuli (attentional deficits). Both the attentional deficits and intermittent generalized seizures were also persistent effects, with both occurring randomly after acute exposure to 5 micrograms/kg soman. Preliminary evidence suggests that occurrence of attentional deficits was associated with the occurrence of generalized and/or focal seizures; and that these effects may reflect irreversible lesions which become more threatening to the animal with increasing time. An additional, delayed effect was a sudden marked increase in the incidence of extra inconsequential responses which occurred several weeks after cessation of soman exposures.