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Mobile phone emission increases inter-hemispheric functional coupling of electroencephalographic alpha rhythms in epileptic patients

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Vecchio F, Tombini M, Buffo P, Assenza G, Pellegrino G, Benvenga A, Babiloni C, Rossini PM. · 2012

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Compared with control subjects, epileptic patients showed statistically significant higher inter-hemispheric coherence of temporal and frontal alpha rhythms in the GSM condition than in the sham condition.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Eyes-closed resting EEG data were recorded in ten patients affected by focal epilepsy in real and sham exposure conditions and compared with 15 age-matched normal subjects from previous reference studies. The GSM device was turned on for 45 minutes in the GSM condition and off for 45 minutes in the sham condition, with the phone always on the left side. Spectral coherence evaluated inter-hemispheric synchronization across delta, theta, and alpha sub-bands. Compared with controls, epileptic patients showed significantly higher inter-hemispheric coherence of temporal and frontal alpha rhythms in the GSM condition versus sham. The authors suggest that GSM electromagnetic fields may affect inter-hemispheric alpha synchronization in epileptic patients.

Why This Matters

They noted that if confirmed in larger groups, the alpha coherence changes could have clinical implications for cognitive-motor function. The analysis compared inter-hemispheric EEG coherence in patients with a control group from previous reference studies.

Exposure Information

Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study. Duration: 45 min

Study Details

Here we tested the hypothesis that this can be even more evident in epileptic patients, who typically suffer from abnormal mechanisms governing synchronization of rhythmic firing of cortical neurons.

Eyes-closed resting EEG data were recorded in ten patients affected by focal epilepsy in real and sh...

Compared with the control subjects, epileptic patients showed a statistically significant higher int...

If confirmed by future studies on a larger group of epilepsy patients, the modulation of the inter-hemispheric alpha coherence due to the GSM-EMFs could have clinical implications and be related to changes in cognitive-motor function.

Cite This Study
Vecchio F, Tombini M, Buffo P, Assenza G, Pellegrino G, Benvenga A, Babiloni C, Rossini PM. (2012). Mobile phone emission increases inter-hemispheric functional coupling of electroencephalographic alpha rhythms in epileptic patients . Int J Psychophysiol. 84(2):164-171, 2012b.
Show BibTeX
@article{f_2012_mobile_phone_emission_increases_1543,
  author = {Vecchio F and Tombini M and Buffo P and Assenza G and Pellegrino G and Benvenga A and Babiloni C and Rossini PM.},
  title = {Mobile phone emission increases inter-hemispheric functional coupling of electroencephalographic alpha rhythms in epileptic patients},
  year = {2012},
  
  url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167876012000475},
}

Quick Questions About This Study

Eyes-closed resting EEG data were recorded in ten patients affected by focal epilepsy in real and sham exposure conditions and compared with 15 age-matched normal subjects from previous reference studies. The GSM device was turned on for 45 minutes in the GSM condition and off for 45 minutes in the sham condition, with the phone always on the left side.
Compared with control subjects, epileptic patients showed a statistically significant higher inter-hemispheric coherence of temporal and frontal alpha rhythms in the GSM condition than in the sham condition.
These results suggest that GSM-EMFs of mobile phone may affect inter-hemispheric synchronization of the dominant (alpha) EEG rhythms in epileptic patients.
If confirmed by future studies on a larger group of epilepsy patients, the modulation of the inter-hemispheric alpha coherence due to the GSM-EMFs could have clinical implications and be related to changes in cognitive-motor function.
Spectral coherence evaluated the inter-hemispheric synchronization of EEG rhythms at the following frequency bands: delta (about 2–4 Hz), theta (about 4–6 Hz), alpha1 (about 6–8 Hz), alpha2 (about 8–10 Hz), and alpha3 (about 10–12 Hz).