| title: | Microwave effects on cognitive functions |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF6173 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| status: | accepted |
| institution: | Tallinn Technical University |
| head of project: | Jaanus Lass |
| duration: | 01.01.2005 - 31.12.2008 |
| description: | The main goal of the project is to find low-level electromagnetic field effects on human cognitive functions. Low-level microwave effects is a weak physical stressor. The hyphothesis of the study is that weak stressor could not cause remarkable changes on adaptively significant functions of human nervous system but influences mostly higher levels of cognitive functions like attention, memory and performance. During the poject the following cognitive functions like perception, attention, memory and performance with and without electromagnetic field present will be studied. The experimental part of the study finds out what parameters like field strength, frequency and modulation of elecromagnetic radiation have the strongest effects on cognitive functions. During the study our previous findings will also be replicated and extended, for example 7 Hz modulated microwave effects on working memory and information processing speed. The field distribution inside the scull will be modelled in order to localise the parts of the brain that receive the highest dose of electromagnetic radiation during experiments and fine tune the location of the radiation peak to different parts of the brain in order to maximise different cognitive effects. The methodology will be developed in order to evaluate the effects of electromagnetic radiation effects on cognitive functions. The results of the study enable to analyse possible health risks of electromagnetic radiation to biological systems and finds a solution on how to influence human nervous system by electromagnetic radiation in order to make use of the studied effects. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Maie Bachmann | Tallinn Technical University | researcher | |
| 2. | Gunnar Karelson | Tallinn Technical University | Senior research scientist | |
| 3. | Jaanus Lass | Tallinn Technical University | Sen. res. fellow | |