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Brain & Nervous System

Comparison of the effects of continuous and pulsed mobile phone like RF exposure on the human EEG.

No Effects Found

Perentos N, Croft RJ, McKenzie RJ, Cvetkovic D, Cosic I. · 2007

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Using realistic phone-like RF exposure levels, researchers found no brain wave changes, unlike previous studies using artificially high exposures.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers exposed 12 people to mobile phone-like radiofrequency radiation for 15 minutes and measured their brain waves (EEG patterns) to see if the exposure affected brain activity. They found no changes in brain wave patterns from either pulsed or continuous RF exposure. This study failed to replicate earlier research that had found brain wave changes, possibly because this study used more realistic exposure levels that better match actual phone use.

Study Details

It is not clear yet whether Global System for Mobiles (GSM) mobile phone radiation has the ability to interfere with normal resting brain function. There have been reports that GSM exposure increases alpha band power, and does so only when the signal is modulated at low frequencies (Huber, R., Treyer, V., Borbely, A. A., Schuderer, J., Gottselig, J. M., Landolt, H.P., Werth, E., Berthold,T., Kuster, N., Buck, A and Achermann, P. Electromagnetic fields, such as those from mobile phones, alter regional cerebral blood flow and sleep and waking EEG. J Sleep Res 11, 289-295, 2002.) However, as that research employed exposure distributions that are not typical of normal GSM handset usage (deep brain areas were overexposed), it remains to be determined whether a similar result patterning would arise from a more representative exposure.

In this fully counterbalanced cross-over design, we recruited 12 participants and tried to replicate...

No changes to alpha power were found for either modulated or unmodulated radiofrequency fields, and ...

Cite This Study
Perentos N, Croft RJ, McKenzie RJ, Cvetkovic D, Cosic I. (2007). Comparison of the effects of continuous and pulsed mobile phone like RF exposure on the human EEG. Australas Phys Eng Sci Med. 30(4):274-280, 2007.
Show BibTeX
@article{n_2007_comparison_of_the_effects_3301,
  author = {Perentos N and Croft RJ and McKenzie RJ and Cvetkovic D and Cosic I.},
  title = {Comparison of the effects of continuous and pulsed mobile phone like RF exposure on the human EEG.},
  year = {2007},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18274067/},
}
PubMed: 18274067

Cited By (40 papers)

Quick Questions About This Study

No, a 2007 study found that 15-minute exposures to mobile phone-like radiofrequency radiation did not change brain wave patterns in 12 participants. The researchers measured EEG activity and found no effects from either pulsed or continuous RF exposure on brain waves.
The 2007 Perentos study failed to replicate earlier findings because it used lower, more realistic exposure levels that better match actual phone use. Previous studies may have shown effects due to unrealistically high radiation exposure levels.
No, researchers found no difference between pulsed and continuous radiofrequency exposure on brain activity. Both types of mobile phone-like radiation failed to produce any measurable changes in EEG patterns during 15-minute exposures.
No, the 2007 study used Approximate Entropy analysis to measure brain wave complexity and found no changes. Neither modulated nor unmodulated radiofrequency exposures affected the non-linear features of resting brain wave patterns.
Yes, exposure levels appear crucial for detecting brain effects. This study used more representative exposure distributions matching actual phone use and found no brain wave changes, unlike earlier studies using higher exposure levels.