Mobile phones modulate response patterns of human brain activity

Mobile phones emit a pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic field (PEMF) which may penetrate the scalp and the skull. Increasingly, there is an interest in the interaction of this pulsed microwave radiation with the human brain. Our investigations show that these electromagnetic fields alter distinct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNeuroreport Vol. 9; no. 14; p. 3229
Main Authors Eulitz, C, Ullsperger, P, Freude, G, Elbert, T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 05.10.1998
Subjects
Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Brain - physiology
Cognition - physiology
Discrimination Learning
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Humans
Male
Mental Processes - physiology
Microwaves
Telephone
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Summary:Mobile phones emit a pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic field (PEMF) which may penetrate the scalp and the skull. Increasingly, there is an interest in the interaction of this pulsed microwave radiation with the human brain. Our investigations show that these electromagnetic fields alter distinct aspects of the brain's electrical response to acoustic stimuli. More precisely, our results demonstrate that aspects of the induced but not the evoked brain activity during PEMF exposure can be different from those not influenced by PEMF radiation. This effect appears in higher frequency bands when subjects process task-relevant target stimuli but was not present for irrelevant standard stimuli. As the induced brain activity in higher frequency bands has been proposed to be a correlate of coherent high-frequency neuronal activity, PEMF exposure may provide means to systematically alter the pattern fluctuations in neural mass activity.
ISSN:0959-4965
DOI:10.1097/00001756-199810050-00018