Mobile phone effects on children's event-related oscillatory EEG during an auditory memory task,

Krause CM, Bjornberg CH, Pesonen M, Hulten A, Liesivuori T, Koivisto M, Revonsuo A, Laine M, Hamalainen H

Int J Radiat Biol, 82(6):443-450, 2006

Purpose: To assess the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by mobile phones (MP) on the 1 - 20 Hz event-related brain oscillatory EEG (electroencephalogram) responses in children performing an auditory memory task (encoding and recognition).

Materials and methods: EEG data were gathered while 15 subjects (age 10 - 14 years) performed an auditory memory task both with and without exposure to a digital 902 MHz MP in counterbalanced order.

Results: During memory encoding, the active MP modulated the event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) responses in the approximately 4 - 8 Hz EEG frequencies. During recognition, the active MP transformed these brain oscillatory responses in the approximately 4 - 8 Hz and approximately 15 Hz frequencies.Conclusions:

The current findings suggest that EMF emitted by mobile phones has effects on brain oscillatory responses during cognitive processing in children.