The Effects Of Mobile Phone Electro-Magnetic Field On Functional Connectivity Of The Brain

Abstract

The change in functional connectivity between different regions of the brain can affect the performance of various cognitive processes. Because of this, subjects having neurological disorders have shown a significant change in the functional connectivity as compared to control subjects. Therefore the study of functional connectivity have become an important tool for the diagnosis and research of various neurological disorders. EEG-based coherence function is one of useful signal processing for examining the functional connectivity between various regions of the brain. The major aim of this study is to investigate the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by cellular phones on functional connectivity existing between various regions of the brain. The functional connectivity was assessed by comparing the magnitude square coherencies (MSCs) of both groups of subjects who were performing visual attention experiment with and without the exposure to a digital 902 MHz field. The subjects were instructed to detect change in the two-picture stimulus presented before them through the computer screen. For the group of subjects with the exposure to EMF, the significant difference in MSC function between change detection and no-change detection trials was examined using the two-way ANOVA statistical test. However for group of subjects without the exposure of EMF, the two-way ANOVA did not reveal the significance level of difference between change detection and no-change detection trials. The considerable loss in the significance level of MSC difference between change detection and no-change detection trial for the group of subjects with the exposure to EMF indicates that EMF may affect the functional connectivity of the brain