An elegant study by Drs. Alexander Borbely, Peter Achermann and colleagues at the Neuroscience Center Zurich (Switzerland) demonstrated that the type and strength of electromagnetic radiation produced by mobile phones could affect the brain. The fact that the subjects were asleep throughout the experiment ruled out any possibility of 'placebo effect'.

Twenty-four men in their early twenties were exposed to an intermittent mobile phone signal whilst asleep - 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off continuously. Every time the signal was first switched on their electro-encephalogram patterns (tracings of the brain's electrical activity) changed, becoming up to 15% stronger in some frequency ranges. The level did not drop immediately the signal was switched off but reduced gradually over the night, suggesting some adaptation mechanism.

It was also noted that the subjects had fractionally less sleep disturbance during the night - 12 minutes awake rather than an average 18 minutes. This finding reflected other work where chronic insomnia has been treated successfully with radiofrequency radiation.

Ed.- The important point here was that electromagnetic radiation similar to that produced by mobile phones changed the brain's functioning, not whether the change was useful or damaging.