Mobile phone use linked with increased brain cell activity
4 March 2011
Exposure to radiation from a 50-minute mobile phone call increases glucose (sugar) breakdown in the areas of the brain closest to the phone antenna, a study shows. (Glucose breakdown indicates that brain cells are active.)
Among 47 healthy study participants, US researchers found brain glucose breakdown was significantly higher in the orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole - the areas of the brain above the eye and adjacent to the ear - when mobile phones were turned on rather than turned off.
The results suggested brain absorption of radiation may "enhance excitability" of brain tissue, but the study could not determine whether mobile phone use triggered effects that could lead to cancer, they said in the journal JAMA (2011; 305: 808-13).
Last Reviewed: 04 March 2011
- 1. Volkow ND, Tomasi D, Wang GJ, et al. Effects of cell phone radiofrequency signal exposure on brain glucose metabolism. JAMA 2011; 305: 808-13. doi: 10.1001/jama.2011.186. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/8/808.abstract (accessed Mar 2011).
