Ajax.PeriodicalUpdater works for firefox, chrome but not IE8

The Ajax.PeriodicalUpdater call of the Prototype framework works for firefox & chrome but not
IE8.
i.e. the web page is refreshed every ten seconds for firefox & chrome
but not refreshed at all for IE8.
<body onload=“new Ajax.PeriodicalUpdater(‘topmenu’, ‘activity.htm’,
{method: ‘get’, frequency: 10});”>
My web page is
<div id=“topmenu”>

<div id=“mainmenu”>

</div>
<div id=“content”>

</div>
</div>