Hypoactivity in silver exposed mice

The functional implications of the presence of silver in the central nervous system are unknown. Since silver is present in the environment and since systemic silver poisoning leads to intraneuronal accumulations of the metal we have evaluated the possible effects of silver on the open field behaviour of mice. Argyric mice have been compared with controls in three experiments, one including long term administration of 0.015% silver nitrate in the drinking water and two in which the reactions of male and female mice to shock doses of silver lactate have been studied. In all experiments the silver treated mice were hypoactive. We suggest that this hypoactivity is due to an influence of silver upon the functional status of the CNS.