The effect of electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone range on the behaviour of the rat.
Daniels WM, Pitout IL, Afullo TJ, Mabandla MV. · 2009
View Original AbstractMobile phone radiation caused stress-like behaviors in rats even without visible brain damage, suggesting EMF affects brain function through subtle pathways.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed rats to electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone frequency range and tested their behavior, brain structure, and stress hormone levels. While they found no changes in learning ability or brain structure, exposed rats showed decreased movement, increased grooming behaviors, and higher stress hormone levels. These behavioral changes suggest that mobile phone radiation may disrupt normal brain function even when obvious structural damage isn't visible.
Why This Matters
This study adds to growing evidence that EMF exposure can affect brain function through subtle mechanisms that don't show up in traditional tissue analysis. The behavioral changes observed-decreased activity, increased grooming, and elevated stress hormones-mirror symptoms of anxiety and stress in animals, suggesting the brain is responding to EMF as a stressor even at cellular levels we can't easily detect. What makes this research particularly relevant is that these effects occurred at mobile phone frequencies that millions of people are exposed to daily. The reality is that our brains may be responding to EMF exposure in ways that current safety standards don't account for, since these standards only consider thermal effects and ignore biological responses like stress hormone disruption.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
The aim of our study was to further investigate the effects of EMR. Since the hippocampus is involved in learning and memory and emotional states, we hypothesised that EMR will have a negative impact on the subject's mood and ability to learn.
We subsequently performed behavioural, histological and biochemical tests on exposed and unexposed m...
We found no significant differences in the spatial memory test, and morphological assessment of the ...
These findings suggested that EMR exposure may lead to abnormal brain functioning.
Show BibTeX
@article{wm_2009_the_effect_of_electromagnetic_2010,
author = {Daniels WM and Pitout IL and Afullo TJ and Mabandla MV.},
title = {The effect of electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone range on the behaviour of the rat.},
year = {2009},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19823925/},
}