8,700 Studies Reviewed. 87.0% Found Biological Effects. The Evidence is Clear.
Shield Your Body

Note: This study found no significant biological effects under its experimental conditions. We include all studies for scientific completeness.

Brain & Nervous System151 citations

Mobile telephone use is associated with changes in cognitive function in young adolescents

No Effects Found

Abramson MJ, Benke GP, Dimitriadis C, Inyang IO, Sim MR, Wolfe RS, Croft RJ · 2009

View Original Abstract
Share:

Heavy mobile phone use may train teenage brains for fast but inaccurate thinking, regardless of radiation exposure.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers studied 317 Australian teenagers to see if mobile phone use affected their thinking abilities. They found that teens who made more phone calls had faster but less accurate responses on cognitive tests, with poorer working memory and learning performance. Importantly, the same effects occurred with text messaging, suggesting the changes came from phone usage habits rather than radiofrequency radiation exposure.

Study Details

The MoRPhEUS study was conducted i to examine the association of mobile telephone use and the cognitive function in young adolescents.

We recruited 317, 7th grade students (144 boys, 173 girls, median age 13 years) from 20 schools arou...

The accuracy of working memory was poorer, reaction time for a simple learning task shorter, associa...

Overall, mobile phone use was associated with faster and less accurate responding to higher level cognitive tasks. These behaviours may have been learned through frequent use of a mobile phone.

Cite This Study
Abramson MJ, Benke GP, Dimitriadis C, Inyang IO, Sim MR, Wolfe RS, Croft RJ (2009). Mobile telephone use is associated with changes in cognitive function in young adolescents Bioelectromagnetics. 30(8):678-686, 2009.
Show BibTeX
@article{mj_2009_mobile_telephone_use_is_2735,
  author = {Abramson MJ and Benke GP and Dimitriadis C and Inyang IO and Sim MR and Wolfe RS and Croft RJ},
  title = {Mobile telephone use is associated with changes in cognitive function in young adolescents},
  year = {2009},
  doi = {10.1002/bem.20534},
  url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20534},
}
DOI: 10.1002/bem.20534

Cited By (151 papers)

View all 151 citing papers on Semantic Scholar

Quick Questions About This Study

Yes, texting shows the same cognitive effects as phone calls in teenagers. A 2009 Australian study of 317 teens found both calling and texting led to faster but less accurate responses on thinking tasks, suggesting usage habits rather than radiation cause these changes.
Yes, teenagers who make more phone calls respond faster but with reduced accuracy on cognitive tests. The 2009 Abramson study found teens showed poorer working memory and learning performance, indicating behavioral changes from frequent phone use habits.
Australian teenagers who use phones more frequently show specific cognitive patterns including faster reaction times but poorer accuracy and working memory. The 2009 study of 317 teens suggests these changes stem from learned behaviors rather than radiation exposure.
Mobile phone voice calling is associated with poorer working memory accuracy in adolescents. The 2009 Australian study found teenagers reporting more voice calls had reduced working memory performance and faster but less accurate responses on learning tasks.
Teenagers show similar cognitive effects from both calling and texting because the changes likely result from usage behaviors rather than radiofrequency radiation. The 2009 study found identical patterns for both activities, ruling out radiation as the primary cause.