Title: Study on electrical properties of human brain using phantom when exposed to EM radiation at 800-2400 MHz

Authors: Aishwarya Subramani; Kalpana Ramakrishnan

Addresses: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, India ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, India

Abstract: The gaining importance of mobile phones is raising a concern on the electromagnetic (EM) radiation effects on human health. Mobile phones are generally placed near head during communication and the radiation emitted interacts with the biological tissues and changes the electrical properties. Brain which generates electrical signals is taken as the point of analysis in this study. Due to inherent difficulties in involving human for such experiments, an electrically similar phantom is developed to determine the EM field interaction with the biological tissues from 800 MHz to 2.4 GHz using a Vector Network Analyser (VNA). The obtained dielectric values are compared with the literature values to verify the correctness of the phantom and accuracy of the experimental set-up. Then the electrical changes are correlated to the biological changes based on the changes taking place in ion concentration in the brain tissues when exposed to various frequencies. The statistical evaluation of this study indicates that the impact of EM radiation is comparatively higher on cerebellum and white matter.

Keywords: brain phantom; dielectric properties; electromagnetic radiation; mobile phones; cell phones; electrical changes; biological changes; ion concentration; brain tissue; cerebellum; white matter.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2016.078995

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2016 Vol.22 No.1, pp.66 - 78

Received: 31 Aug 2015
Accepted: 22 Dec 2015
Published online: 08 Sep 2016 *

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