Effects of thirty-minute mobile phone use on visuo-motor reaction time,

Terao Y, Okano T, Furubayashi T, Ugawa Y

Clin Neurophysiol, Sep 25; 2006

[Epub ahead of print]

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether exposure to pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic field (pulsed EMF) emitted by a mobile phone has short-term effects on the visuo-motor choice reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT).

METHODS: A double blind, counterbalanced crossover design was employed. In 16 normal subjects, we studied the performance of a visuo-motor precued choice reaction time task (PCRT) before and after exposure to EMF emitted by a mobile phone for 30 minutes or sham exposure.

RESULTS: The RTs and MTs under different conditions of precue information were not affected by exposure to pulsed EMF emitted by a mobile phone or by sham phone use.

CONCLUSIONS: Thirty minutes of mobile phone use has no significant short-term effect on the cortical visuo-motor processing as studied by the present PCRT task.

SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study to investigate visuo-motor behavior in relation to mobile phone exposure. No significant effect of mobile phone use was demonstrated on the performance of the visuo-motor reaction time task.