Effects of electromagnetic field emitted by cellular phones on the EEG during an auditory memory task: a double blind replication study.
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Date
2003-12-29
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Abstract
The effects of electromagnetic fields EMF emitted by cellular phones on the event related desynchronization synchronization ERD ERS of the 4 6 6 8 8 10 and 10 12 Hz electroencephalogram EEG frequency bands were studied in 24 normal subjects performing an auditory memory task This study was a systematic replication of our previous work In the present double blind study all subjects performed the memory task both with and without exposure to a digital 902 MHz field in a counterbalanced order We were not able to replicate the findings from our earlier study All eight of the significant changes in our earlier study were not significant in the present double blind replication Also the effect of EMF on the number of incorrect answers in the memory task was inconsistent We previously reported no significant effect of EMF exposure on the number of incorrect answers in the memory task but a significant increase in errors was observed in the present study We conclude that EMF effects on the EEG and on the performance on memory tasks may be variable and not easily replicable for unknown reasons