INVESTIGATION OF POSSIBLE COGNITIVE EFFECTS OF WI-FI ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS ASSESSED BY SPONTANEOUS EEG AND PSYCHOMOTOR VIGILANCE MEASURES

As only few studies have addressed biological effects of radiofrequency energy absorption of novel wireless technologies in living body, we set out 1) to design and test a unique Wi-Fi exposure system and 2) to investigate the effects of single 60 min Wi-Fi electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure on neurophysiological brain function assessed by recording spontaneous scalp EEG (sEEG) and 3) on human cognitive performance assessed in a computerized version of Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Specific absorption rate (SAR) were modeled with commercial simulation platforms, using whole-body, realistic, positioned, sitting human voxel models (female/male) and was found to 1W input over 10g 227.67/103.68mW/kg on forehead skin, 27.02/16.01mW/kg on grey matter, 11.57/7.33mW/kg on white matter. Twenty-five healthy volunteers participated in two experimental sessions (genuine or sham EMF irradiation) in a double-blind design. sEEG data were collected from midline electrodes while subjects were watching a silent documentary clip. In a different experiment, 19 healthy volunteers participated performing PVT, where reaction time (RT) data were registered. Normalized SAR indicated differences between genders. During exposure, sEEG spectral components in the alpha band revealed significant Irradiation × Gender interaction (p = 0.04) with no further differences in the post hoc analyses. According to RT data, PVT results did not reveal any significant Gender or Irradiation effects. Although the present results do not support any adverse effects of acute Wi-Fi EMF exposure on sEEG or PVT measures, further investigation will be needed to provide conclusive evidence in the matter of possible gender-related differences.