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Mobile phone emission modulates event-related desynchronization of α rhythms and cognitive-motor performance in healthy humans

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Vecchio F, Buffo P, Sergio S, Iacoviello D, Rossini PM, Babiloni C. · 2012

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GSM mobile phone exposure reduced high-frequency alpha rhythm power decrease and sped up reaction times in a go/no-go task.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Eleven healthy adults underwent two EEG sessions one week apart in a crossover, placebo-controlled, double-blind paradigm. In each session, participants performed a visual go/no-go task before the real GSM exposure or after the sham condition. During the real GSM session, the temporal cortex was continuously exposed to GSM-EMFs for 45 min. High-frequency alpha rhythm power decrease was reduced and reaction times to go stimuli were faster after GSM exposure compared to before.

Why This Matters

The researchers noted that while GSM-EMFs were known to affect brain rhythms, it was unclear if this related to cognitive function changes. The results suggested that the peak amplitude of alpha ERD and the reaction time to go stimuli are modulated by the effect of GSM-EMFs on cortical activity. In the sham session, participants were unaware that the electromagnetic fields had been turned off for the entire experiment. The go/no-go task used green and red visual stimuli with green appearing 50% of the time, requiring a button press for green stimuli. Cortical activity was indexed by power decreases in low-frequency (8-10 Hz) and high-frequency (10-12 Hz) alpha rhythms relative to a baseline period.

Exposure Information

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

Study Details

It has been shown that electromagnetic fields of Global System for Mobile Communications phone (GSM-EMFs) affect human brain rhythms (Vecchio et al., 2007, Vecchio et al., 2010), but it is not yet clear whether these effects are related to alterations of cognitive functions.

Eleven healthy adults underwent two electroencephalographic (EEG) sessions separated by 1 week, foll...

It was found less power decrease of widely distributed high-frequency alpha rhythms and faster react...

These results suggest that the peak amplitude of alpha ERD and the reaction time to the go stimuli are modulated by the effect of the GSM-EMFs on the cortical activity.

Cite This Study
Vecchio F, Buffo P, Sergio S, Iacoviello D, Rossini PM, Babiloni C. (2012). Mobile phone emission modulates event-related desynchronization of α rhythms and cognitive-motor performance in healthy humans Clin Neurophysiol. 123(1):121-128, 2012a.
Show BibTeX
@article{f_2012_mobile_phone_emission_modulates_1542,
  author = {Vecchio F and Buffo P and Sergio S and Iacoviello D and Rossini PM and Babiloni C.},
  title = {Mobile phone emission modulates event-related desynchronization of α rhythms and cognitive-motor performance in healthy humans},
  year = {2012},
  
  url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1388245711004445},
}

Quick Questions About This Study

Eleven healthy adults completed two EEG sessions one week apart in a crossover, placebo-controlled, double-blind paradigm.
In the real GSM session, the temporal cortex was continuously exposed to GSM-EMFs for 45 min.
After GSM exposure, high-frequency alpha rhythm power decrease was reduced and reaction times to go stimuli were faster, while no effects occurred in the sham session.
Participants performed a visual go/no-go task where they pressed a button for green stimuli that appeared with 50% probability.
Cortical activity was indexed by power decreases in low-frequency (8-10 Hz) and high-frequency (10-12 Hz) alpha rhythms relative to a baseline period.