Whole brain EEG synchronization likelihood modulated by long term evolution electromagnetic fields exposure

Abstract

In this paper, we aimed to investigate the possible interactions between human brain and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) with electroencephalogram (EEG) technique. Unlike the previous studies which mainly focused on EMF effect on local brain activities, we attempted to evaluate whether the EMF emitted from Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices can modulate the functional connectivity of brain electrical activities. Ten subjects were recruited to participate in a crossover, double-blind exposure experiment which included two sessions (real and sham exposure). In each session, LTE EMF exposure (power on or off) lasted for 30 min and the EEG signals were collected with 32 channels throughout the experiment. Then we applied the synchronization likelihood method to quantify the neural synchronization over the whole brain in different frequency bands and in different EEG record periods. Our results illustrated that the short-term LTE EMF exposure would modulate the synchronization patterns of EEG activation across the whole brain.