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Cell Phone Radiation Excites the Brain
frostilicus2 writes "The Register is reporting that Italian researchers have shown that radiation from mobile phones can excite the brain's cortex. A region that is "responsible for many higher faculties". They even claim that such an effect could be beneficial to some conditions."
This should be a boon for the phone sex industry.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
People that overuse their cell phone are usually braindead to begin with, so at least SOMETHING is happening in their brains.
They even claim that such an effect could be beneficial to some conditions.
Counterpoint, so does that mean that in other conditions it is harmful. Like causing you to drive like a moron.
...is not one of those 'high level faculties'.
ZOMGWTFPWNtKKTHNXBIBI!!!ONE!111!!!
Young male volunteers at Fatebenefratelli hospital in Milan used a GSM900 device for 45 minutes. Reporting in the journal Annals of Neurology, Dr Paolo Rossini and colleagues then measured activity in the motor cortex, located near the ear. Powerful magnets aimed at the motor cortex have been shown to induce muscles to twitch.
It might explain while people can't seem to walk and talk on their mobile phone at the same time.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
It obviously doesn't excite the part of the brain that controls someone's ability to drive worth a damn.
STFU & GBTW
Talking on the cell phone will activate your cortex. Ok. So where's the control group that talked on a wired phone instead and showed a lower level of cortical activity?
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
It is an interesting article but way too short to tell us anything. With just 15 subjects the sample group is likely way too small to draw any conclusions. It may be enough however to secure more research money.
Can it have similar effects?
Wile I get my cell phone fix ...
how long until
No no, cell-phone radiation doesn't cause brain cancer - see, it's actually good for you! It sounds like the same kind of PR tactics climate-change "skeptics" employ - just causing doubt and confusion around an issue - and putting it out in the popular press. I wonder who is publicizing these results?
Then why do I always feel slightly dumber after talking on one of the damn things?
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
Without having read the actual scientific journal article (but just the very unscientific coverage of it), I have serious reservations about the study: 1) Cell phone radiation is of sufficiently low energy that I am not sure it can even penetrate INTO the brain. I am not sure this has ever been conclusively shown. (I am a radiation oncologist by trade. We deal with much higher energy beams when treating patients. So I'm a little outside my training here. However, even some of the treatments we use only penetrate a centimeter or less, and these are much higher energy than radiation from cell phones, as far as I know.) 2) This study appears, at first blush, to make the error of assuming that association of two disparate events demonstrates cause and effect. If the brain is more active, their study design fails to prove that it is due to the radiation. Maybe the brain becomes more excitable because the study subject just got a phone call from a friend or loved one? Furthermore, does the motor cortex excitation show a "sidedness?" That is, if subject hold the phone against her right ear, versus their left, does it make a difference in the excitation of the right versus left motor cortex? It might be that the original article addresses some of these shortcomings.
What happens when we're all using multimode 3G/WiMAX phones? Swedes in Gotene got their brains fried by their recent WiMAX deployment. I'd call that "exciting the brain": exciting like a train wreck.
--
make install -not war
It has been known for many years that cell phone radiation stimulates the brains of product liability lawyers.
Some see the vessel as half full; others see it as half-empty; We pour it out on the floor and laugh
The article mentions intra-cortical communication and the article suggests their findings may apply to the entire cortex, but really, they've only tested the temporal lobe.
My overall reaction is positive. I have ADD, so I'll be strapping my phone to my forehead and talking on my earpiece in the hope that the radiation will go straight to my prefrontal cortex. I'll look silly, but I'm used to that, and there's a slim chance that maybe I'll stop losing my keys.
*#*#*#*#*#******* I love peanut butter sandwiches!
I believe that my driving is no worse with the cell phone
I don't care if you believe pixies will magically steer your car away from accidents. I'm telling you: People driving with cell phones drive worse than without the cell phone.
This isn't an opinion, nor a belief, it's an observation.
You can't take the sky from me...
The more distracted you are the worse off you'll be able to react in an emergency.
Distractions come in many flavors besides cell phone use. Noisy kids in the back seat. Changing the radio dial. Unexpected construction signs. Flashing billboards. Other drivers honking. A news bulletin on the radio.
It is each driver's responsibility to know how much each distraction will impair him and how much impairment he can handle given traffic and road conditions.
On familiar road with little or no traffic and no uncontrolled intersections you can afford a lot more distraction than in the middle of a congested urban street where drivers may be making sudden stops and turns.
A new cellphone user may funble with it, have a hard time finding the buttons, and be otherwise distracted. An experienced user may be able to dial and carry on a "non-thinking" conversation with little or no impairment. Some drivers may even be able to carry on "deep thought" conversations without putting themselves or others at risk.
Know your limits. Respect them. For your sake and the sake of others.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
-Todd
-Todd
Put down the sig, and step away from the computer.
So you have observed all people, and know that each and every one drives worse on a cell phone?
What about those people who become less aggressive beause they're on the phone and they take extra precautions for just that reason?
I believe your sample size is too small to be statistically useful.
:(){
Driving can be easily impaired by things like:
1) Conversations with other car occupants (can be quite distractions)
2) Radio fiddling (or even just listening and grooving along)
3) Operating cabin climate controls, navigation systems, etc.
4) External stimuli (car accidents to gawk at, pretty girls to lead the eye, etc)
5) Alcohol
6) Drugs, prescription or otherwise
7) Fatigue (Drowsiness probably kills as many people as cell phones ever will)
8) Drinks and/or food in the car especially if consumed on the move
9) Lipstick application or other personal hygiene tasks performed on the move
The list goes on. Is the cell phone worse? My own experience is because it can be a challenge to one-hand dial, that can be very distracting, as can be rooting around for the phone to answer a call and typing a text message is a real pain. Perhaps a car-set or bluetooth headset and voice dial would alleviate some of these issues, but not all. Cell phones can be quite a hazard.
But so can fishing around for CDs, trying to adjust your MP3 player to the right folder, being distracted by an outside event, being tired (very common), being drunk or stoned (a bit less common), doing other dumb things (lipstick, newspapers, etc). Eating in the car or drinking coffee or the like can be fairly baneful to good driving as well.
So why hack on cellphones? We've got catch-all regulation that covers various unspecified impairments to a driver's ability to operate and we've got particular legislation covering drugs, alcohol and in some cases fatigue. Unless we're going to start banning eating, listening to music, or any other possible distraction (or have cars run by computers that aren't prone to distraction), then we should just admit cell phones probably aren't much different than any other distraction, or at least this has hardly been proven as of this time.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
You know, studies have actually been mixed in regards to this.
I would actually like to see studies that show no effect. I'm actually quite familiar with studies that show that cell phone driving does have an effect and would like to see a good counterpoint. I recommend reading a post I wrote up in another discussion about David Strayers's work on dual-task interference and change blindness. Humans don't multitask all that well despite their own perceptions of their abilities.
In fact, I would not be surprised to find people are as poor at driving with a hands-free set for their phone as they are holding the phone.
That's basically what the research shows. It's not having both hands on the wheel or not that results in slower braking times and less attention to surroundings -- it's focusing part of your mind on conversation.
Paying too much attention to passengers (much like all the other things you listed) is one of those things that can and will get an accident blamed on you in a police report if you own up to them. Though, it turns out that in simulations, talking on a cell phone is more impairing than talking to a passenger according to the 10th paper on Strayer's page. Somehow, though, I doubt the passenger in the experiment was being stared at by the drivers instead of the road. People who do that give me the willies when driving.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
That when that 1W of power (see above poster) goes through your brain, if, on a random chance, it should strike the DNA or growth inhibitor, it could spawn a cell that reproduces randomly and without restraint.
Such a growth is called "Cancer".
And now you have learned.
Now where did I put that tinfoil hat again?
So should people not be allowed to listen to and sing along with music
I don't know if it's still like that but when I was in Germany it was illegal to play the radio while you were driving.
FalconShould there be a Law?
We just happen to use the same vehicles for both tasks. I'm just guessing, but Germans probably more frequently use trains when traveling long distances.
When I was there travel by train was the most frequent method of traveling longer distances not just in Germany by in most of Europe. Trains were better suited for passenger travel there than it the US. However a few years back I heard that was changing, that air travel was becoming more popular. After 911 while airlines were hurting in the US, a few business and economics magazines described how well air travel was in Europe, that many small airlines were being started and were doing well. And for local travel bikes were popular.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Do we next arrest people for not having enough sleep?
It's one of the major reasons why I think we should just scrap all of the laws banning "driving while X" and start enforcing the laws against reckless driving. A revolutionary idea, I know - removing people from the road because they're driving poorly instead of because of what's in their hand or how much sleep/food/booze they've had - but it seems to me like it just might work...
Agreed. Although I occassionally say something like "I wish there were a law..." upon second or third thought, I wish more that people would take more responsibility for thier actions or inactions and be held accountable. Unfortunately it seems too many people have forgotten along with freedom and liberty goes accountability and responsibility. Then again some just don't care.
FalconShould there be a Law?
What about those people who become less aggressive beause they're on the phone and they take extra precautions for just that reason?
The road ragers who are too distracted by the phone to focus their anger on the drivers around them?
You can't take the sky from me...
(so off-topic it's anonymous now)
Nowhere did I mention anything about a distraction. Personally, I have two driving modes - passive, and aggressive. Don't let the connotation of aggressive fool you.
When aggressive, I do ~10 mph over the speed limit, and I'll change lanes to pass people on the highway. I don't come to a complete stop at a stop sign, but I slow down enough that I can stop if necessary (some minimal momentum allows me to skip first gear).
When passive, I do about the speed limit, I stay in the right-hand lane because I can't keep looking back in my rear-view mirror to see if I'm being tailgated, and come to a complete stop at stop signs to prevent myself from rolling through.
Passive driving is triggered by more than just using my cell phone. (which, btw, I can still use the turn signal with one hand) I could be having a conversation with a passenger, for instance.
The problem isn't the cell phone. The problem isn't drivers who use cell phones. When will the world learn? The problem is the people who don't know how to focus the majority of their attention on their driving (and I'm confident no one focuses 100% on driving 100% of the time). Cell phones, make-up, newspapers, crackberries, etc. are just the messenger for people who don't focus mostly on driving. Don't shoot the messenger if you don't like the message.
The position taken was people with cell phones drive worse than those without them. He replied that some people adjust their driving style when talking on the cell phone, and that after the adjustment they may drive better (for some definition of better) than before the adjustment (e.g. without the cell phone).
By the way, technically, you're trolling by responding with a comment whose intent is to inflame the parent. Allow me to demonstrate -
He's not a straw man. Don't be such a wanker.
I'd like to see a study done with a referent based on the IQ of the driver. I'd bet heavily on people with IQs over 125 being way better at driving while talking on their cell than people 110 or less.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
The world is filled with morons and shouldn't be driving a car.
But the general public blames the cell phones.