Influence of Magnetic Field on Brain Activity During Administration of Caffeine
El Gohary MI, Salama AA, El Saeid AA, El Sayed TM, Kotb HS. · 2013
View Original AbstractMagnetic fields at household appliance levels altered rat brainwaves in just 15 days, with caffeine appearing to reduce some effects.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed rats to magnetic fields from power lines for 15 days and monitored brain activity. The magnetic fields altered brainwave patterns, particularly in the brain's right side. Caffeine appeared to modify these effects, suggesting everyday exposures may interact in unexpected ways.
Why This Matters
This study adds to the growing body of evidence that extremely low frequency magnetic fields can directly affect brain function, even at relatively low exposure levels. The 0.2 mT exposure used here is within the range you might encounter near household appliances or power lines, making these findings relevant to everyday exposure scenarios. What makes this research particularly intriguing is the suggestion that caffeine might offer some protective effect against magnetic field-induced brain changes. While we shouldn't interpret this as license to drink more coffee as EMF protection, it does highlight how our bodies' responses to electromagnetic fields can be complex and influenced by other factors. The fact that researchers observed measurable changes in brainwave patterns after just 15 days of exposure underscores the importance of taking EMF exposure seriously, particularly given our constant exposure to these fields in modern environments.
Exposure Details
- Magnetic Field
- 0.2 mG
- Source/Device
- 8–12 Hz
- Exposure Duration
- 15 days
Exposure Context
This study used 0.2 mG for magnetic fields:
- 10Kx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.2 mG
- 2Kx above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 1 mG
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
The aim of the present work is to evaluate the effect of caffeine, the world’s most popular psychoactive drug, on the electric activity of the rat’s brain that exposed to extremely low-frequency magnetic field (ELF-MF), during 15 days.
The obtained results showed that administration of caffeine in a group of rats by dose of 10 mg/kg (...
It may be concluded that caffeine administration was more effective in reducing the hazardous of ELF-MF in motor cortex than in visual cortex.
Show BibTeX
@article{mi_2013_influence_of_magnetic_field_246,
author = {El Gohary MI and Salama AA and El Saeid AA and El Sayed TM and Kotb HS.},
title = {Influence of Magnetic Field on Brain Activity During Administration of Caffeine},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.1007/s12013-013-9584-x},
url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12013-013-9584-x},
}