1. Mobile Phones Excite the Human Brain - Study

A study by Italian researchers has reported that cellphone emissions may "excite" the brain, although it is not clear if this is harmful - or indeed, even possibly a good thing. When a cellphone is placed next to the head, an area close to the phone is excited, although this then settles down after around an hour of rest from cellphone usage. The researchers suggest further research to find out the implications of this excitement effect. Fifteen male volunteers attended two experimental sessions, one week apart, in a cross-over, double-blind paradigm.

In one session the signal was turned ON (EMF-on, real exposure), in the other it was turned OFF (EMF-off, sham exposure), for 45 minutes. Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) were recorded using a paired-pulse paradigm (testing intracortical excitability with 1 to 17 ms interstimulus intervals), both before and at different times after exposure to the EMF. Short Intracortical Inhibition (SICI) and Facilitation (ICF) curves were evaluated both on the exposed and non-exposed hemispheres. Tympanic temperature was collected during each session. The research was funded jointly by Telecom Italia Mobile and Associazione Fatebenefratelli per la Ricerca.

The full study is published in the Annals of Neurology