EMF Pollution (2011) & Brain Functioning

Learn more about EMF Pollution.

A 2011 paper¹ published confirms that very weak varying electric fields in brain tissue significantly affect neural functioning.

This is the first conclusive evidence that suggests that exposure to EMFs (especially the very high electric fields underneath high voltage overhead power lines as well as low-frequency magnetic fields from mobile phones) may well cause problems that many have suspected.²

The possibility that low level fields have such an impact has been dismissed by scientists, even though doctors have used very high pulsed magnetic fields known as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to "reset the brain" for many years.The actual mechanism by which TMS works was not proven, but was thought to depolarize the synapses. The 2011 research suggests that a more subtle electric field effect synchronising mechanism is at work. The fact that synchronisation effects have now been found at very low electric field levels has potentially large implications for general EMF exposure guidelines.

The brain displays continual electrical activity with countless overlapping electric fields, generated by the neural circuits of scores of communicating neurons.

New research suggests that at least low frequency electric fields do much more and may represent an additional important form of neural communication.

1. Anastassiou CA, Perin R, Markram H, Koch C. Ephaptic coupling of cortical neurons. Nat Neurosci. 2011 Feb;14(2):217-23. Epub 2011 Jan 16
2. Alasdair and Jean Philips Electromagnetic Fields: A Human EMC Problem? (May 2006)