The developmental effects of aspartame on water maze performance in rats

Abstract

The present set of experiments were designed to accomplish three goals. First to determine if acute aspartame exposure has an effect on water maze performance in adult rats. Second, to replicate preliminary data which suggests that pre- and post-natal aspartame exposure causes a deficit in water maze performance, and to determine if the magnitude of the effect changes with increasing doses of aspartame. The third goal was to begin to establish whether the behavioral deficit observed in the preliminary study was due to the time during development of exposure or to the duration of exposure to aspartame. Aspartame was administered to the rats via their drinking water, and the rats were tested in the Morris water maze (a test of spatial learning and memory). The data indicate that acute aspartame exposure does not affect performance in the water maze in adult rats. Additionally, aspartame was not found to have a significant effect on water maze performance when administered pre- and post-natally, a finding which fails to replicate preliminary studies. The findings suggest that at the ages and concentrations used in this study, aspartame consumption does not seem to have an effect on learning and memory.