Mobile telephone use is associated with changes in cognitive function in young adolescents

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Public Health

Background:

• Adolescent mobile phone use is prevalent globally.
• Concerns exist regarding potential cognitive effects of mobile phone radiofrequency (RF) exposure.
• Limited research has investigated the association between mobile phone use and cognitive function in young people.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the relationship between mobile phone use and cognitive function in secondary school students.
• To assess if radiofrequency (RF) exposure or usage behaviors are associated with cognitive performance.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study (MoRPhEUS) involving 317 seventh-grade students in Melbourne, Australia.
• Participants completed questionnaires on mobile phone usage (voice calls, SMS) and cognitive tests assessing working memory, learning, and executive function.
• Linear regression models analyzed cognitive test outcomes, adjusting for covariates and clustering by school.

Main Results:

• Higher mobile phone voice call frequency correlated with poorer working memory accuracy and faster, less accurate performance on simple learning tasks.
• Increased mobile phone use was associated with longer completion times for Stroop word naming tasks.
• Similar cognitive associations were observed for short message service (SMS) usage, suggesting behavioral factors over RF exposure.

Conclusions:

• Adolescent mobile phone use is associated with specific cognitive changes, including faster but less accurate performance on complex tasks.
• Findings suggest learned behaviors from frequent mobile phone use, rather than radiofrequency exposure, may underlie observed cognitive alterations.
• Further research is needed to understand the long-term implications of these usage-related cognitive effects.