Title: Impact of communication technology on human brain activity: mobile phone vs. landline phone

Authors: Aruna Tyagi; Manoj Duhan; Dinesh Bhatia

Addresses: Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology Murthal, Sonepat, Haryana-131039, India ' Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology Murthal, Sonepat, Haryana-131039, India ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology Murthal, Sonepat, Haryana-131039, India

Abstract: The trend towards wireless replacement of wired service is unmistakable. With the decline in the relative cost of wireless technology and rapidly changing telecommunication infrastructure, customers will shift usage to a more convenient wireless access. Hence, mobile phone communication (wireless) is replacing traditional wired landline phones. With current high demand and anticipated further increase in usage of mobile phones, has led to renewed interest and considerable research effort to study the interaction between electromagnetic (EM) radiations emitted from mobile handsets and the human body. This paper discusses experimental findings conducted to study the effect of EM radiation from currently used wireless (GSM and CDMA) and wired technologies on human brain activity. The results show that GSM operated mobile phones effect the temporal and occipital regions of the brain most. It was found that human brain activity increases by a factor of 8 when compared with CDMA phones and this effect is 50 times greater when compared with landline phone.

Keywords: wireless communications; wired communications; electromagnetic radiation; global system for mobile communications; GSM; code division multiple access; CDMA; electroencephalograms; EEG; communications technology; human brain activity; mobile phones; landline phones; cell phones; temporal region; occipital region.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2013.051662

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2013 Vol.5 No.1, pp.20 - 30

Published online: 28 Jan 2014 *

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