No effects of mobile phone use on cortical auditory change‐detection in children: An ERP study

Abstract

We investigated the effect of mobile phone use on the auditory sensory memory in children. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), P1, N2, mismatch negativity (MMN), and P3a, were recorded from 17 children, aged 11-12 years, in the recently developed multi-feature paradigm. This paradigm allows one to determine the neural change-detection profile consisting of several different types of acoustic changes. During the recording, an ordinary GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone emitting 902 MHz (pulsed at 217 Hz) electromagnetic field (EMF) was placed on the ear, over the left or right temporal area (SAR(1g) = 1.14 W/kg, SAR(10g) = 0.82 W/kg, peak value = 1.21 W/kg). The EMF was either on or off in a single-blind manner. We found that a short exposure (two 6 min blocks for each side) to mobile phone EMF has no statistically significant effects on the neural change-detection profile measured with the MMN. Furthermore, the multi-feature paradigm was shown to be well suited for studies of perception accuracy and sensory memory in children. However, it should be noted that the present study only had sufficient statistical power to detect a large effect size.

Effects of mobile phone electromagnetic fields: Critical evaluation of behavioral and neurophysiological studies

“…Preattentive auditory discrimination processing (and short-term memory) reflected by mismatch negativity (MMN) was not affected by a GSM signal in adults [Kwon et al, 2009] or children [Kwon et al, 2010a]. Kleinlogel et al [2008b] and Stefanics et al [2008] found no effects of UMTS signals on auditory discrimination processing in oddball tasks.…”

Children's health and RF EMF exposure. Views from a risk assessment and risk communication perspective

“…The argument against a causal influence of RF EMF exposure on cognitive function and CNS in children is also based on three studies [41,42,45]. In their experimental study, Haarala et al [45] used several cognitive tests to measure the effect of RF EMF exposure on memory, reaction time, and vigilance.…”

“…There are seven original papers addressing the effect of RF EMF on cognitive function and CNS in children [38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. The age of the children investigated in these studies was in the range of 10-17 years.…”

Effects of radio- and microwaves emitted by wireless communication devices on the functions of the nervous system selected elements

“…Ponieważ ucho sąsiaduje ze źródłem PEM, którym jest telefon komórkowy, więk-szość badań ukierunkowywano na sprawdzenie oddziaływania PEM na układu słuchowy, w tym na słu-chowe potencjały wywołane -w trakcie lub po ekspozycji, a nawet po ekspozycji wielokrotnej. Nie zaobserwowano w tych badaniach żadnych skutków oddziały-wania PEM [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Również badania na zwierzętach nie wykazały takiego oddziaływania [47].…”