Effects of central nervous system accumulation of tellurium on behavior in rats.

Rats were treated for 112 days with daily injections of 2 mg/kg potassium tellurite in Sorensen's phosphate buffer or with the buffer vehicle only. At sacrifice, the cerebral gray matter of the animals treated with tellurite was grossly darkened. The presence of tellurium in cerebellum was confirmed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Growth of the tellurite-treated animals was significantly impaired when compared with control animals. However, in a T-maze the activity level of the tellurite-treated animals was increased. On a simple delayed response task, the performance of the tellurite-treated animals was more consistent than that of the buffer-treated animals.