In what debunks the claims of those who believe cell phones do not affect your brain at all, a study, by researchers from Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Isola Tiberina, Italy, has found that certain brain cells get excited by the electromagnetic field (EMF) created by mobiles. However, this does not mean that prolonged usage of mobile phones causes brain cancer as many fear. In fact in some cases, it might also prove beneficial, the researchers wrote in a report published in the
Annals of Neurology.
The researchers, led by Paolo M Rossini, used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study the effect of EMF exposure on the brain of 15 male volunteers aged between 20 and 36 years. The subjects were exposed to EMF signals from a cell phone for 45 minutes and their motor evoked potentials (MEP) were studied before and after the exposure. An analysis of the results showed that of the 15 subjects, 12 had experienced some change in the motor cortex close to the mobile.
This phenomenon might actually prove beneficial to those with migraines or neurological disorders but prove detrimental for patients of epilepsy and brain diseases, the researchers theorized. “Intracortical excitability was significantly modified, short intracortical inhibition was reduced and facilitation enhanced. It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMF linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects,” they said in the report.
The researchers, however, admitted that further investigations were required to correctly establish if prolonged and intense use of cellular phones affected health adversely or positively. “Further studies are needed to better circumstantiate these conditions and to provide safe rules for the use of this increasingly more widespread device,” they said. Interestingly, brain activity returned to its normal state around an hour after the exposure ended.
Hailing the study, New York University Medical Center's Brain Research Laboratories director E Roy John said that it clearly demonstrated that regular use of cell phones did affect the body in some way. “Using a cell phone is not innocuous. It has an effect on your brain. Whether that's good or bad, we don't yet know, but it's definitely having an effect. The effects are clear. The increase in excitability is clear and lasts for about an hour. Is that effect harmful or beneficial? I don't know,” he said.
Agreed Michigan's Beaumont Hospital neurologist Dr Jonathan Fellows. “This was an interesting study, but the end result is, we don't know what EMF will do in terms of helping or hurting cortical neurons. There's a potential for benefit in terms of hyperexcitability for migraine, stroke or dementia. Although cell phones have gotten bad press, there could potentially be some good that comes out of cell phone use,” he said.
The two, however, agreed that the use of mobile phones should be discouraged among children and teenagers till more conclusive data is collected and examined.
A number of studies have been conducted to determine if cell phones increase the risk of brain cancers. But most of the results have been inconclusive and have failed to give a definitive prognosis. “Overall the evidence for (EMF) effects on cognitive functions in humans is inconsistent and inconclusive…Biological evidence suggests that (EMF) do not cause mutation or initiate or promote tumor formation,” one such study, the Advisory Group on Non-Ionizing Radiation (AGNIR) Report, had said in 2003.
Some mobile users have reported symptoms like burning sensations near the head, fatigue, sleeplessness and dizziness, slowed reaction times, lack of attention, and headaches after using cellulars. But investigations have again failed to reveal a clear association between the use of mobiles and such symptoms.
