Effects of Mobile Phone Exposure On Human’s Brain: A Systematic Review

Background: The increasing number of mobile phone use all over the world has made great concerns about the adverse effects of it on the human health. The brain and memory have special importance and the cognitive function could be affected by the signals from mobile phones. Although there are number of studies that investigated the effects of mobile phone signals on memory, the results seems to be controversial. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to review the effects of mobile phone signals on human’s cognitive functions with a special focus on the memory. Materials and Methods: A search was done in PubMed with the keywords: (mobile phone[Title/Abstract]) AND memory[Title/Abstract] AND (Humans[Mesh]). The publication dates were from 01.01.2000 to 31.11.2016 Results: Out of 51 results, 26 were selected according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Most of the studies (19/26) investigated the effects of short term mobile phone exposure on adults. Out of the 19 studies, 3 reported positive effects, 2 reported negative effects and others reported that there are no significant effects of mobile phone short term exposure on memory. Increased speed processing and improved spatial memory were among positive effects and less accuracy of tasks, decreased configural memory and impaired reaction time were reported as negative effects. 2/26 studies investigated long term effects of mobile phone signals and both reported decreased attention and less memory performance. 5/26 studies were questionnaire based and evaluated the effects of mobile phone base stations on the health conditions of subjects living near them. The most common complaints of subjects were headache, dizziness, sleep disturbances, memory changes and depressive symptoms. There were also variables that influenced the severity of exposure effect on memory and cognitive performance: 1-sex 2- age 3- duration of exposure Conclusion: The mobile phone use could affect memory and cognitive performance, especially in long term exposures. Mobile phone base stations could also cause health related complaints in people near that. But further longitudinal cohort studies are needed to confirm the results.