Functional and network analyses of human exposure to long-term evolution signal

Yang, Lei; Zhang, Chen; Chen, Zhiye; Li, Congsheng; Wu, Tongning

doi:10.1007/s11356-020-10728-w

Research Article
Published: 25 September 2020

Functional and network analyses of human exposure to long-term evolution signal

Lei Yang¹,
Chen Zhang¹,
Zhiye Chen²,
Congsheng Li¹ &
Tongning Wu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9894-9518¹

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 5755–5773 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Human exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by wireless communication systems has raised public concerns. There were claims of the potential association of some neurophysiological disorders with the exposure, but the mechanism is yet to be established. The wireless networks, recently, experience a transition from the 4th generation (4G) to 5th generation (5G), while 4G long-term evolution (LTE) is still the frequently used signal in wireless communication. In the study, exposure experiments were conducted using the LTE signal. The subjects were divided into sham and real exposure groups. Before and after the exposure experiments, they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Within-session and between-session comparisons have been executed for functional connectivity and network properties. Individual specific absorption rate (SAR) was also calculated. The results indicated that acute LTE exposure beneath the safety limits modulated both the functional connection and graph-based properties. To characterize the effect of functional activity, SAR averaged over a certain tissue mass was not an appropriate metric. The potential neurophysiological effect of 5G exposure has also been discussed in the study.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due (data involves the subject’s privacy) but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation Project (Grant No. 61971445)

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Authors and Affiliations

China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Beijing, China
Lei Yang, Chen Zhang, Congsheng Li & Tongning Wu
Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China
Zhiye Chen

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Lei Yang
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Chen Zhang
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Zhiye Chen
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Congsheng Li
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Tongning Wu
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Contributions

Lei Yang and Tongning Wu conceived and designed the study; Lei Yang performed the experiments; Tongning Wu wrote the paper; Chen Zhang reviewed and edited the manuscript; Congsheng Li and Zhiye Chen collection of the data; all authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tongning Wu.

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Yang, L., Zhang, C., Chen, Z. et al. Functional and network analyses of human exposure to long-term evolution signal. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 5755–5773 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10728-w

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Received: 08 June 2020
Accepted: 02 September 2020
Published: 25 September 2020
Issue Date: February 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10728-w

Keyword

Long-term evolution
Functional connectivity
Brain network
Specific absorption rate (SAR)
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity
Safety limits
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)