Arsenic exposure disrupted object recognition memory.

<p>Mice were administered arsenic daily for 12 weeks and subsequently trained in the object recognition memory task. Long-term memory was tested 24 h later. <b>(A)</b> No differences were found in the exploration time in all groups of mice when exploring two identical objects (<i>p</i> > 0.05). <b>(B)</b> Mice treated with 10 mg/ kg arsenic showed decrease in the total exploring time for both two identical objects (<i>p</i> < 0.05). <b>(C)</b> When exploring two different objects, groups of mice treated with 0 and 1 mg/ kg arsenic showed preference towards the novel object (both <i>p</i> < 0.05). No differences were found in the exploration time in groups of mice treated with 3 and 10 mg/ kg arsenic (both <i>p</i> > 0.05), indicating that LTM in these two groups of mice was disrupted. <b>(D)</b> Mice treated with 10 mg/ kg arsenic showed decrease in the total exploring time for both two different objects (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The data were expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 14 per group). *<i>p</i> < 0.05, compared with the exploration time to object A1 or 0 mg/ kg group.