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Home List of Titles Effects of 2G and 3G mobile phones on performance and electrophysiology in adolescents, young adults and older adults
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/193707
- Effects of 2G and 3G mobile phones on performance and electrophysiology in adolescents, young adults and older adults
- Leung, S.; Croft, R. J.; McKenzie, R. J.; Iskra, S.; Silber, B.; Cooper, N. R.; O'Neill, B.; Cropley, V.; Diaz-Trujillo, A.; Hamblin, D.; Simpson, D.
- Objective: This study examined sensory and cognitive processing in adolescents, young adults and older adults, when exposed to 2nd (2G) and 3rd (3G) generation mobile phone signals. Methods: Tests employed were the auditory 3-stimulus oddball and the N-back. Forty-one 13-15 year olds, forty-two 19-40 year olds and twenty 55-70 year olds were tested using a double-blind cross-over design, where each participant received Sham, 2G and 3G exposures, separated by at least 4 days. Results: 3-Stimulus oddball task: Behavioural: accuracy and reaction time of responses to targets were not affected by exposure. Electrophysiological: augmented N1 was found in the 2G condition (independent of age group). N-back task: Behavioural: the combined groups performed less accurately during the 3G exposure (compared to Sham), with post hoc tests finding this effect separately in the adolescents only. Electrophysiological: delayed ERD/ERS responses of the alpha power were found in both 3G and 2G conditions (compared to Sham; independent of age group). Conclusion: Employing tasks tailored to each individual's ability level, this study provides support for an effect of acute 2G and 3G exposure on human cognitive function. Significance: The subtlety of mobile phone effect on cognition in our study suggests that it is important to account for individual differences in future mobile phone research.
- Publication type
- Journal article
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Brain Sciences Institute
- Clinical Neurophysiology, Vol. 122, no. 11 (Nov 2011), pp. 2203-2216
- Publication year
- FOR Code(s)
- 1103 Clinical Sciences; 1109 Neurosciences; 1702 Cognitive Sciences
- Acute exposure; Adolescents; Cognitive processing; EEG; Elderly; Electroencephalogram; GSM900; Mobile phone exposure; Mobile phones; Sensory processing; W-CDMA; Young adults
- Publisher URL
- Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. on behalf of International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology.
- Research Projects
- Peer reviewed