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Study Finds Cell Phone Use Stimulates the Brain

By Paul Napoli

February 24, 2011

Government researchers have found that cell phone use affects the brain in the region closest to the antenna, but the long-term effects remain unknown.

A new study entitled Effects of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Signal Exposure on Brain Glucose Metabolism, published in the February 23 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), shows that holding a cell phone to the head during a 50-minute call stimulates the brain in the area nearest the antenna.

As cell phone usage increases around the world, there are concerns about the radio frequency-modulated electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) generated from cell phones causing cancers of the brain. While some previous studies showed an increase risk of cancer, other studies have not.

'Concern has been raised by the possibility that RF-EMFs emitted by cell phones may induce brain cancer. ... Results of this study provide evidence that acute cell phone exposure affects brain metabolic activity,' researchers write. 'However, these results provide no information as to their relevance regarding potential carcinogenic effects (or lack of such effects) from chronic cell phone use.'

Nora D. Volkow, M.D., of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and colleagues performed positron emission tomography (PET) scans on 47 people to measured brain glucose metabolism (a marker of brain activity) as they held a cell phone in the ON and OFF mode to their head. The scans showed that the metabolism increases substantially in the brain's orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole, areas nearest the cell phone antenna.

'The increases were significantly correlated with the estimated electromagnetic field amplitudes both for absolute metabolism and normalized metabolism,' the authors write. 'This indicates that the regions expected to have the greater absorption of RF-EMFs from the cell phone exposure were the ones that showed the larger increases in glucose metabolism.'

Watch Dr. Volkow discuss the study findings in this video.

'These results provide evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the effects of RF-EMFs from acute cell phone exposures,' said researchers. They add that the mechanisms by which RF-EMFs could affect brain glucose metabolism are unclear.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Paul Napoli

Full post as published by New York City Personal Injury Lawyer on February 24, 2011 (boomark / email).