"Do Mobile Phones Affect Brain Function?"
At present, we don’t know precisely
the degree to which the risk of cancer
and other adverse health effects
are increased by the exposure
to the radiofrequency fields from cell phones.
I explored the brain tumor data previously.
What other potential adverse
health effects might there be?
For example, what about the effect on brain function?
The dramatic increase in the use of cell phones
has generated concern about possible
negative effects of the radiofrequency signals
delivered to the brain.
However, whether acute cell phone exposure
affects the human brain is unclear.
So, researchers decided...
to put it to the test using PET scan technology,
and did find elevated brain activity
in the region of the brain closest
to the antenna after 50 minutes
of exposure to a cell phone call.
But what does that actually mean?
Well, it’s evidence that the human brain
has at least some sensitivity
to the effects of cell phone radiation.
The increase in metabolism in brain regions closest
to the antenna brain absorption of cell phone emissions
may enhance the excitability of brain tissue.
The potential health consequences of this are unknown,
noted the accompanying editorial,
though suggests an effect on brain functioning is possible,
potentially affecting neurotransmitter
and neurochemical brain activities.
Maybe that can explain the changes in psychological test outcomes
observed after exposure to cell phone radiation.
Wait, what?
Earlier studies failed to find an effect
of short-term cell exposure on human cognitive performance,
but this 2017 review noted that several studies
now indicate an increase in things like brain tissue excitability,
which may translate out into measurable cognitive effects.
This cortical excitability– excitability of the outer layer of the brain,
might underpin disruptions in sleep
tied to cell phone exposure, for example,
but may also improve reaction time.
If you expose people to active cell phones
while playing like a computer game, they can actually respond faster
compared to sham exposure, meaning like placebo exposure—
same scenario but with the cell phone turned off.
So, the industry can be like ok, ok;
so, cell phone radiation does affect
brain function after all,
but the effects are positive!
A decrease in reaction time upon exposure
to microwave radiation from cell phones
can help people better respond
to different threatening situations,
decreasing errors perhaps,
reducing destructive accidents.
But, the difference in reaction time
was just a few thousandths of a second.
Put all the studies together, the effects seem so small
that implications for human performance
in everyday life can be practically ruled out.
There was a study that found that heavy cell phone users
did better on a test of the ability
to filter out irrelevant information,
but this improvement in focused attention
may just be because heavy cell phone users
have lots of practice carrying on conversations
in crowded places.
Overall, electromagnetic fields from cell phones
do not seem to induce cognitive or fine motor skill effects.
Nonetheless, one has to worry about the existence
of sponsorship and publication biases,
meaning maybe studies funded by cellphone companies
were designed in a way to skew the results
or were quietly shelved and never published
if they showed anything negative.
And, indeed, if you compare the source
of funding and results of studies
of the health effects of mobile cell phone use,
studies funded exclusively by industry
were substantially less likely
to report significant health effects.
It would look suspicious, though,
if all the industry studies just showed no effects.
So, some have accused the industry
of taking obfuscation to a new level.
Although yes, the industry-funded studies
were significantly more likely to show no effects,
as one might expect,
no two studies reported the same effects,
and the few attempts at replication failed.
Thus, the apparent message of the studies
dovetails well with the industry’s position
that there are no reproducible biological effects.
So, they’re not just denying the existence of effects.
If the industry-funded studies
all just universally found no effects,
in contrast to independent research,
the industry research program could
have been more easily dismissed.
Of course, they all couldn’t come out
showing health effects—
that would have been bad for business;
so, by instead coming up with this
wide hodge-podge of conflicting results,
they can better protect themselves,
perhaps all part of a well-designed
legal strategy to fight off lawsuits,
but we may never know.
We do know that when the World Health Organization
came out saying that cell phones
may be causing brain tumors,
the cellphone industry went into damage control
to attack the agency,
similar to when the WHO came out
against second-hand tobacco smoke.
Sowing confusion and manufacturing doubt
is just what industries tend to do.