This paper talks about the growing concern in the people about the effect of mobile phone RF radiation on human brainwave signal using various techniques to capture those effects. Linear, Non- linear and statistical methods (t-tests) employed by various researchers to analyze variation in brainwaves.This paper gives comparison between brainwaves like Delta (0.5-4 Hz), Theta (4-8 Hz), Alpha (8-13 Hz), Beta (13-30 Hz) and Gamma (30 Hz-70Hz) in terms of Frequency Progressive map and amplitude progressive tri-maps. Electroencephalography (EEG) gives a noninvasive way of measuring brainwave activity from sensors placed on the scalp of the human head. So, the aim of this paper is to study the effect of RF exposure from mobile phone on Human brainwave as brainwaves Brain wave can provide information of mental state of the individual.

1. Int. Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engg. Vol. 2, Spl. Issue 1 (2015) e-ISSN: 1694-2310 | p-ISSN: 1694-2426
NITTTR, Chandigarh EDIT -2015 164
Mobile Phone Handset Radiation
Effect on Brainwave Signal using EEG:
A Review
1
Kuldeep Singh, 2
Sandeep Kumar
1
Department of ECE, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research Chandigarh-160019
2
Departmentof Zoology, Post Graduate Government College, Chandigarh-160011, India
1
Singh.kuldeep2009@gmail.com, 2
Shanty_chaudhary@yahoo.co.in
Abstract—This paper talks about the growing concern in
the people about the effect of mobile phone RF radiation
on human brainwave signal using various techniques to
capture those effects. Linear, Non- linear and statistical
methods (t-tests) employed by various researchers to
analyze variation in brainwaves.This paper gives
comparison between brainwaves like Delta (0.5-4 Hz),
Theta (4-8 Hz), Alpha (8-13 Hz), Beta (13-30 Hz) and
Gamma (30 Hz-70Hz) in terms of Frequency Progressive
map and amplitude progressive tri-maps.
Electroencephalography (EEG) gives a noninvasive way of
measuring brainwave activity from sensors placed on the
scalp of the human head. So, the aim of this paper is to
study the effect of RF exposure from mobile phone on
Human brainwave as brainwaves Brain wave can provide
information of mental state of the individual.
Keywords- Mobile phone; brainwaves; EEG; Radiofrequency
(RF); Brain; Cognitive
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of mobile phone is increasing day by day
around the globe, as cell phones have become an
integral part of people’s lives. As per the world
population clock the total world population is
7,012,000,000 and
number of mobile users around the world are
6,800,000,000+ as evaluated in February 2013[1]. Thus,
there are 97 phones per 100 citizens. Also India has
second largest mobile users around the world with
937,055,980 mobile users from the population of
1,267,402,000. Thus,there are 73.9 mobile phone users
per 100 citizens as per TRAI 30 November 2014 Press
Release [2].Mobile communication device are used in
immediate vicinity of the body, producing high
localized RF energy deposition.Frequency band used for
mobile are GSM900 or GSM 1800 or WCDMA 2100.
Mobile phone emits pulsed high-frequency
electromagnetic fields thatmay have some adverse
effects on the brain activity and human health. Since
mobilephones are used in closedproximity to human
temporal region of head as shown in Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Electromagnetic exposure on human brain [3]
In spite of using mobile phone below the permissible
SAR level set by Health regulatory body (FCC,
WHO,ICNIRP).TheFederalCommunications
Commission (FCC) has set a SAR limit of 1.6 W/kg,
averaged over a volume of 1 gram of tissue, for the
head.In Europe, the limit is 2 W/kg, averaged over a
volume of 10 grams of tissue. People encounter various
symptoms like sleepiness, dizziness, headache, fatigue,
loss of mental attention, heart palpitations, disturbance
of digestive system, burning and tingling sensations in
the skin of the head, memory loss, brain-tumours,
decrease in sperm count, decrease in mobility and many
more after the use of mobile phone. Still, there is no
accepted evidences with which we can prove these
effects are due to RF radiation. Thus, researcher are still
finding way to prove the presence of such affects as
there is also no proof that shows use of mobile phone is
safe for use.Thus, it isnecessary to control the adverse
effectscaused by mobilephone radiation on people. It is
important to know that all humans brain display five
different types of electrical patterns or brain waves
across the cortex. The brain waves can be measured
with an EEG (electroencephalograph) – a tool that
allowsresearchers to record brain wave patterns. Each
brainwave has a purpose and helps serve us in optimal
mental functioning.Brain is considered to be important
unit of central controlling system. As, the nervous
system ofhuman is divided into three main system i.e.

2. Int. Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engg. Vol. 2, Spl. Issue 1 (2015) e-ISSN: 1694-2310 | p-ISSN: 1694-2426
165 NITTTR, Chandigarh EDIT-2015
Central Nervous System (CNS) which mainly contains
Brain and Spinal cord, the Peripheral Nervous system
(PNS) and the Autonomic Nervous system(ANS).Brain
wave frequencies play a vital role in how successful we
are at handling stress, focusing on tasks, and getting a
good night’s sleep. If one of the five types of brain
waves is either overproduced or under produced in our
brain, it can cause problems. Each serves a role to help
us cope with various situations whether it is to help us
process and learn new information or help us calm down
after a long stressful day. Theta and gamma rhythms
associated with memory processes or memory formation
and also linked with working memory [4].Brainwaves
can be divided into five groups mainly delta, theta,
alpha, beta and gamma as shown in table 1.
TABLE I. BRAINWAVES
Brainwaves Frequency
(Hz)
Amplitude
(µv)
Description
Delta 0.5-4 20-200 associated with
deep sleep
Theta 4-8 2-100 associated with
drowsiness
Alpha 8-13 20-60 associated with
relaxed and alert
Beta 13-30 2-20 associated with
active thinking
or attention
Gamma >30 5-10 associated with
event related
synchronization
of brain
The researchers are trying to study different brainwaves
Delta (0.5-4 Hz), Theta (4-8 Hz), Alpha (8-13 Hz), Beta
(13-30 Hz), Gamma (30-70 Hz) of physiological interest
to come on conclusion whether the mobile phone
radiation alter the brain activity or not.Hence EEG
machine can be used as a toolfor recording ofbrainwave
waves by placing electrodes on the scalp of human brain
with a conductive gel or paste as per International 10–20
system with minimum 19 recording electrodes (plus
ground and system reference electrode) are used.Fig, 2
shows the placement of scalp electrode on human
brain.Fig.3 shows the frequency progressive map for all
frequency range used to analyze EEG power spectrum at
differentlocation of human scalp. In order to study the
results better we can use amplitude progressive Tri-
maps from three
Fig. 2 International 10–20 system electrode
Placement on scalp of human brain.
Fig. 3 Frequency Progressive map
differentviews,as shown in fig. 4 Many researchers were
still finding evidences on how these levels
of radiation affect biological tissue and on cognition.
Various Biological Effects of Radio Waves were
observed by various researchers like sleep disorder,
abnormal BP, weakness, fatigue, digestive problems in
children, impaired motor function, reaction time,
memory and attention [5].
R. M .Isa et al. in [6] have investigated that RF
Emission by mobile phone give several effect to
brainwave signal and there are significant different
between the session of exposure. Brainwave signal
were recorded focusing on alpha sub band with
frequency range from 8 to 12 Hz using
electroencephalograph. It has been observed during
Discriminant analysis of Alpha PAR (Power
Asymmetry Ratio) gave highest classification
percentage in session During with 94.7% and followed
by sessionafter with 91.6% as compared to 51.6% in
session before mobile phone radiation alters regional
cerebral blood flow on sleep and waking EEG Here
brain hemisphere dominance is investigated by using
Power Asymmetry Ratio.

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In another study, N. Perentos et al. in [7] have
investigated the effect of both Pulsed and Continuous
radio frequency exposures on Alpha band of the
electroencephalogram. Seventy-two healthy volunteers
(35 females, 37 males) participated in a single recording
session where the eyes open resting EEG activity was
recorded and four exposure conditions were presented
(sham, pulsed modulated RF, continuous RF, and pulsed
low frequency) in a counterbalanced order for 20 min.
The mean alpha amplitudes for each condition, and the
statistical findings helps to conclude that suppression of
the global alpha band activity was observed under the
pulsed modulated RF exposure, and continuous RF
exposure but no effect was seen in the extremely low
frequency condition.
Ole Jensen et al. in [8] have discussed recent findings
demonstrating human gamma-frequency activity
associated with attention and memory in both sensory
and non-sensory areas. In recent iEEG studies reported
that gamma-frequency power is modulated by the phase
of theta-frequency oscillations and oscillatory activity in
the gamma-frequency band is related to object
representations in humans is supported by a range of
studies using EEG and MEG recordings. Attention and
maintenance of working memory are reflected by
increase in Gamma -band (30–100 Hz) Synchronization.
ZunairahHj Murat et al. in [9] investigate the effects of
mobile phone radiation on human brainwaves using
electroencephalograph (EEG) particularly on alpha
wave and thirty samples were taken that make calls
from a mobile phone to another party without
conversation to minimize artifacts in the EEG signals.
The mobile phone was held next to right ear at a
distance 2 cm from user’s head. The time frame protocol
of the experiment involving three stages (5 min for each
session and 1 minrest between each session), which
were before, during and after usage of mobile
phone.The four electrodes and 2 channels were
employed in bipolar connection as per International
Standard 10-20 electrode system.By performing
statistical Analysis which showed alpha level of the
right side decreases significantly during the calls and
further decreases within the period of 5 min. after the
calls were ended. However, the alpha power of the left
side of the head remains invariant throughout the
experiment. It has been observed that the increment in
the alpha waves shows that, samples are more relaxed,
and has higher concentration capability. Also correlation
between the alpha left and the alpha right brainwaves
signal decreases after 5 min. exposure from mobile
phone.
James c. Lin et al. in [10] has compared the two studies
one was UK investigation and other study was
Finlandinvestigation. According to UK study the effect
on cognitive function was studied in 18 children who
were 10 to 12 years of age, a standard Nokia
3110mobile-phone handset were used for exposures and
observed that some trends toward faster reaction times,
Higher accuracy and higher sensitivity in the presenceof
microwave radiation from a GSM cell phone than under
sham exposure (power-off) conditions and alsofound
that simple reaction-time measurement during
Fig. 4 Amplitude Progressive map
sham exposure was considerably slower significant vale
(p-vale = 0.02) than during exposure to 0.025 W and
0.25 W. In other study of Finland recruited twice as
many subjects (16 boys and 16 girls), but used a
different study design, which involved a two-way
counterbalance methodology and it was concluded that
RF electromagnetic energy from a standard GSM cell
phone had no effect on 10-14 year olds' cognitive
function, as measured by response time and accuracy.
Roy Luria et al. in [11] examined the time dependence
effect of exposure to mobile phone radiation on the
cognitive function of human. A total of 48 healthy right
handed male subjects performed a spatial working
memory task and were divided into three equal groups.
Twostandard Nokia TM 5110 GSM phones are attached
to both sides of the head by a non- conductive frame and
phone were silent during the whole test and was located
1.5 cm away from the subject’s head. Max SAR for
Nokia (5110) ranges from 0.54 to 1.09 w/kg.
Observation made by author after performing the
experiment that Avg RT (Reaction time) of the right
hand response under left side exposure was significantly
longer than those of the right side and sham exposure
groups. It has also been observed that EMF decreased
the theta band EEG activity during memory retrieval
task and increased the alpha band activity.
T. W. Huang et al. in [12] investigated that P300 at Pz
location on brain scalp could be used to identify the
cards memorization in a subjects’ brain, as amplitude of
P300 for target(memorized card) were larger than non-
memorized cards but P300 was affected by long –term
memory when recalling the memories in short-term
memory. The amplitude of P300 increases from frontal
to parietal lobe. Poker cards were used as visual stimuli
to evoke ERPs for recognition task by detecting
memorized card stored in short-term memory and

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167 NITTTR, Chandigarh EDIT-2015
observed that memory can be detected by the changes of
potentials of brain P300, at Pz location in head. Thus,
long-term Memory affected the recognition task of
short-term memory.
II. CONCLUSION
From the above literature survey we concluded that
mobile phone RF exposure affects human brainwaves.
In spite of using mobile phone below the permissible
SAR level set by Health regulatory body (FCC, WHO,
ICNIRP) some bio-effects has been observed in mobile
user. Where in some researcher recorded the effect in
terms of Avg RT (Reaction time) of the right hand
response under left side exposure was significantly
longer than those of the right side and sham exposure
groups and alpha level of the right side decreases
significantly during the calls and further decreases
within the period of 5 min. after the calls were
ended.Attention and maintenance of working memory
are reflected by increase in Gamma -band (30–100 Hz)
synchronization.EMF decreased the theta band EEG
activity during memory retrieval task and increased the
alpha band activity. Memory can be detected by the
changes of potentials of brain P300, at Pz location in
head. Researchers were using different timing
protocolwhich results difficulty in to analyze the
accurate effect of RF exposure from mobile phone.
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