Effects of Central Nervous System Irradiation on Human Performance, Blood Pressure and Emotional State

The overall aim of this study was to assess changes in human performance as a result of various combinations of dose, time, and volume of central nervous system irradiation. Twenty-eight separate behavioral measures ranging from blood pressure, motor coordination, and muscle strength, to memory, motivation, anxiety, and decision-making ability were obtained. Overall, the results showed that relatively young healthy subjects receiving central nervous system irradiation involving the spinal cord or brain for extracranial neoplasms showed no performance decrement when compared to the matched controls on a broad range of behavioral functions. Even the extreme cases receiving the highest dose and volume of ionizing irradiation showed no apparent performance decrement. The only objective measure that was significant was blood pressure where a decline was found particularly in diastolic blood pressure from the pre-exposure to post-treatment trials. (Author)