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Updated: Jun 29, 2025
Polygraphic Recording Procedure for Measuring Sleep in Mice
Published on: January 25, 2016
Impact of specific electromagnetic radiation on wakefulness in mice
Hu Deng1,2, Lingyu Liu1, Xiaping Tang3,4,5
1Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology & Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Abstract:
Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the environment, particularly in the microwave range, may constitute a public health concern. Exposure to 2.4 GHz EMR modulated by 100 Hz square pulses was recently reported to markedly increase wakefulness in mice. Here, we demonstrate that a similar wakefulness increase can be induced by the modulation frequency of 1,000 Hz, but not 10 Hz. In contrast to the carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz, 935 MHz EMR of the same power density has little impact on wakefulness irrespective of modulation frequency. Notably, the replacement of the 100 Hz square-pulsed modulation by sinusoidal-pulsed modulation of 2.4 GHz EMR still allows a marked increase of wakefulness. In contrast, continuous sinusoidal amplitude modulation of 100 Hz with the same time-averaged power output fails to trigger any detectable change of wakefulness. Therefore, alteration of sleep behavior by EMR depends upon not just carrier frequency but also frequency and mode of the modulation. These results implicate biological sensing mechanisms for specific EMR in animals.
