THE NEURAL EFFECTS OF MICROWAVE IRRADIATION
Robert T. Nisset, Rene Baus, Robert D. McAfee, Joseph D. Fleming Jr., Lawrence R. Pinneo · 1959
Military researchers were investigating microwave effects on the nervous system as early as 1959, decades before consumer microwave devices became ubiquitous.
Plain English Summary
This 1959 technical report from the Rome Air Development Center examined how microwave radiation affects the nervous system. The research represents one of the earliest systematic investigations into microwave effects on neural function. While specific findings aren't available, this work helped establish the foundation for understanding how electromagnetic fields interact with brain and nervous system activity.
Why This Matters
This 1959 report represents a pivotal moment in EMF research history - military scientists were already investigating how microwave radiation affects the brain and nervous system over six decades ago. The fact that the Rome Air Development Center commissioned this neural effects research suggests early recognition that microwaves could impact biological systems in ways beyond simple heating. What makes this particularly relevant today is that we're now surrounded by microwave-emitting devices that didn't exist in 1959. Your WiFi router, cell phone, and Bluetooth devices all operate in microwave frequency ranges. While we can't know the specific findings from this classified-era research, the very existence of this investigation tells us that concerns about microwave effects on neural function have deep scientific roots. The reality is that today's microwave exposures are both more intense and more constant than anything researchers could have imagined when this foundational work began.
Finding
Irradiation of Sensory regions initiates a nociceptive response in the peripheral nervous system. These effects occur with only a moderate rise in temperature and do not occur if the tissue temperature is kept constant by cooling.
In their words
“Irradiation of Sensory regions initiates a nociceptive response in the peripheral nervous system. These effects occur with only a moderate rise in temperature and do not occur if the tissue temperature is kept constant by cooling.”
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To investigate the possible effects of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region upon the mammalian nervous system and explore and characterize such effects as may relate to human performance
Peripheral nerves of the subject animal are exposed by reflecting overlaying skin leaving the nerve ...
The most immediate and possibly the only important neurophysiological effect of 3 cm. microwave radi...
The present report describes the results of microwave absorption by the peripheral nervous system and supporting tissues. A characteristic response is found to occur within a relatively narrow temperature range. Most of the previous observations suggesting specific neural effects of microwave radiation in mammals refer to behavioral changes. To provide a measurable reference quantity which would be directly correlated with behavior, a study of direct current potentials in the central nervous system has been initiated. The central nervous system is found to provide measurable power, with the source divided into regions of lesser and greater power capacity. Low levels of microwave radiation show only a suggestion of an effect on cerebral d.c. potentials. Radiant heating at higher levels does modify these potentials. Parallel experiments have been initiated with humans as subject using surface electrodes. These experiments generally supported the contention that microwaves cause primarily a heating effect on the mammalian nervous system.
Show BibTeX
@article{the_neural_effects_of_microwave_irradiation_g4935,
author = {Robert T. Nisset and Rene Baus and Robert D. McAfee and Joseph D. Fleming Jr. and Lawrence R. Pinneo},
title = {THE NEURAL EFFECTS OF MICROWAVE IRRADIATION},
year = {1959},
}