Persistent mobile phone use may lead to a slowing of brain activity and unbalanced behavior, according to a study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience this month. The study, which was limited to 300 people in Australia, England and the Netherlands, occurred over the course of 2.4 years. Researchers intend on expanding the study to 17,000 participants for a longer period of time.
Although the study showed that frequent mobile phone users exhibited slower brain activity, the slowed brain activity was still considered to be within the realm of normal brain functioning. The longer planned study would look into whether the slowed brain activity over an extended period of time could results in an adverse health effect.
On a brighter note, the study revealed the habitual mobile users actually showed an improvement in their ability to focus, which was declared to be a learning effect due to making phone calls in loud areas where background noise and other distractions needed to be filtered out.
The study was carried out with participation from Brainclinics Diagnostics, Radbound University in Nijmegen, the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and The Brain Resource Co. Ltd. in Sydney.
This is a pretty shocking discovery. Here’s a little food for thought, what kind of effect would it have on the global mobile phone market if long-term adverse health effects were proven to be a result of prolonged cell phone use?
One Comment
I wonder if the effect is physical or psychological?
I often see people at Cafe Bookstores, spending all their time talking about drivel on their cell phones–while I am reading math books or chess books.
Maybe, the test subjects just don’t USE their minds very much?