PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Volkow, Nora AU - Tomasi, Dardo AU - Wang, Gene-Jack AU - Vaska, Paul AU - Fowler, Joanna AU - Telang, Frank AU - Alexoff, David AU - Logan, Jean AU - Wong, Christopher TI - Effects of cell phone radiofrequency signal exposure on brain glucose metabolism DP - 2011 May 01 TA - Journal of Nuclear Medicine PG - 60--60 VI - 52 IP - supplement 1 4099 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/supplement_1/60.short 4100 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/supplement_1/60.full SO - J Nucl Med2011 May 01; 52 AB - 60 Objectives The dramatic increase in cell phone use has generated concern about possible negative effects of cell phone radiofrequency signals on the human brain. However the extent to which acute cell phone exposures affect the human brain is still unclear. Here we evaluate if acute cell phone exposure affects brain glucose metabolism, which is a marker of brain activity. Methods and 18FDG were used to measure brain glucose metabolism in 48 healthy subjects twice, once with cell phone on right ear activated for 50 minutes (ON with sound muted) and once with cell phone OFF. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analyses were performed to compare metabolism between ON and OFF conditions using paired t-tests and to perform regression analysis with the estimated radiofrequencies. Results Metabolism was significantly higher with than without cell phone exposure in the brain region closest to the antenna, which was located in the lower orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole (ON: 35.7 ±0.9 micromol/100 grams/min; OFF: 33.4 ±1 micromol/100 grams/min); SPM Pc <0.05). The increases were significantly correlated with intensities of the estimated electromagnetic field amplitude in the radiofrequency bandwidth of the phones both for absolute (r=0.63, P <0.0001) and normalized metabolism (r=0.91; P <0.0001). Interestingly, accumulated monthly cell phone exposure correlated positively with normalized metabolism (OFF condition) in these same regions. Conclusions Our results give evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the acute effects of radiofrequencies (and perhaps also chronic) emitted from cell phones. The dependency to the distance from the antenna suggests that the use of a wired ear-piece would prevent this effect. Research Support Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Healt