Cognitive and neurobiological alterations in electromagnetic hypersensitive patients: results of a case-control study

Abstract

These results demonstrate significant cognitive and neurobiological alterations pointing to a higher genuine individual vulnerability of electromagnetic hypersensitive patients.

Effects of mobile phone electromagnetic fields: Critical evaluation of behavioral and neurophysiological studies

“…Therefore, psychological factors such as conscious expectation of symptoms may play an important role in inducing subjective symptoms related to EMF exposure, which is called a nocebo effect [Rubin et al, 2005[Rubin et al, , 2010Röösli, 2008]. Landgrebe et al [2008b] demonstrated that triggering symptom expectations resulted in symptom formation, accompanied by activation in the brain regions previously shown to be involved in pain perception [Landgrebe et al, 2008a].…”

Research Letter: Electrosensitives and perception of magnetic pulses

“…In our recently published paper by Landgrebe et al (2008), earlier investigations (Frick et al 2005) describing reduced ability in subjective electromagnetic hypersensitive patients (EHS) to discriminate real from sham transcranial magnetic pulses were confirmed. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was performed with Magstim (Frick et al 2005) and Medtronic (Landgrebe et al 2008) equipment.…”

“…Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was performed with Magstim (Frick et al 2005) and Medtronic (Landgrebe et al 2008) equipment. However, the description of the sham condition was not clear-cut in either of the papers.…”

“…However, the description of the sham condition was not clear-cut in either of the papers. For example, in Landgrebe et al (2008), we stated that probands knew ' that each pulse had a 50 % probability of representing a real magnetic stimulus or to be only an acoustic click without an accompanying magnetic pulse '. Regarding both papers, it should be clarified that both Magstim and Medtronic sham coils produce a magnetic field ; however, this is very low compared to the verum coils.…”

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: The opinion of an observer neurologist

“…Actually, TMS is a mean for investigating the functional state of the brain. This method was applied to compare EHS and control subjects by Frick et al [64], Landgrebe et al [65,66], from the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Regensburg. In a pilot study comparing an EHS group (n = 30) to two control groups, one with a low level of subjective complaints (n = 28) and the other one with a very high level of complaints (n = 27) [64], there were no significant differences between groups neither in detecting the real magnetic stimulus nor in the objective motor response.…”