/*The experiment revealed that after the phone was switched to "talk"
mode a different brain-wave pattern, called delta waves (in the range of
one to four Hertz), remained dampened for nearly one hour after the
phone was shut off.*/
*http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2008/08/mind-control-by-cell-phone.html*
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Mind Control by Cell Phone
<http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2008/08/mind-control-by-cell-phone.html>
May 7, 2008
Scientific American
in Mind & Brain
By R. Douglas Fields
"This was a completely unexpected finding," Horne told me. "We didn't
suspect any effect on EEG [after switching off the phone]. We were
interested in studying the effect of mobile phone signals on sleep
itself." But it quickly became obvious to Horne and colleagues in
preparing for the sleep-research experiments that some of the test
subjects had difficulty falling asleep.
Horne and his colleagues controlled a Nokia 6310e cell phone---another
popular and basic phone---attached to the head of 10 healthy but
sleep-deprived men in their sleep research lab. (Their sleep had been
restricted to six hours the previous night.) The researchers then
monitored the men's brainwaves by EEG while the phone was switched on
and off by remote computer, and also switched between "standby,"
"listen" and "talk" modes of operation for 30 minute intervals on
different nights. The experiment revealed that after the phone was
switched to "talk" mode a different brain-wave pattern, called delta
waves (in the range of one to four Hertz), remained dampened for nearly
one hour after the phone was shut off. These brainwaves are the most
reliable and sensitive marker of stage two sleep---approximately 50
percent of total sleep consists of this stage---and the subjects
remained awake twice as long after the phone transmitting in talk mode
was shut off. Although the test subjects had been sleep-deprived the
night before, they could not fall asleep for nearly one hour after the
phone had been operating without their knowledge.
Although this research shows that cell phone transmissions can affect a
person's brainwaves with persistent effects on behavior, Horne does not
feel there is any need for concern that cell phones are damaging. The
arousal effects the researchers measured are equivalent to about half a
cup of coffee, and many other factors in a person's surroundings will
affect a night's sleep as much or more than cell phone transmissions.
"The significance of the research," he explained, is that although the
cell phone power is low, "electromagnetic radiation can nevertheless
have an effect on mental behavior when transmitting at the proper
frequency." He finds this fact especially remarkable when considering
that everyone is surrounded by electromagnetic clutter radiating from
all kinds of electronic devices in our modern world. Cell phones in talk
mode seem to be particularly well-tuned to frequencies that affect
brainwave activity. "The results show sensitivity to low-level radiation
to a subtle degree. These findings open the door by a crack for more
research to follow. One only wonders if with different doses, durations,
or other devices, would there be greater effects?"
Croft of Swinburne emphasizes that there are no health worries from
these new findings. "The exciting thing about this research is that it
allows us to have a look at how you might modulate brain function and
this [look] tells us something about how the brain works on a
fundamental level." In other words, the importance of this work is in
illuminating the fundamental workings of the brain-scientists can now
splash away with their own self-generated electromagnetic waves and
learn a great deal about how brainwaves respond and what they do.
Mind Matters is edited by Jonah Lehrer, the science writer behind the
blog The Frontal Cortex and the book Proust was a Neuroscientist.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=mind-control-by-cell&page=2