Effects of 2.45 GHz Wi‐Fi exposure on sleep‐dependent memory consolidation

Abstract

Studies have reported that exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF‐EMF) emitted by mobile telephony might affect specific sleep features. Possible effects of RF‐EMF emitted by Wi‐Fi networks on sleep‐dependent memory consolidation processes have not been investigated so far. The present study explored the impact of an all‐night Wi‐Fi (2.45 GHz) exposure on sleep‐dependent memory consolidation and its associated physiological correlates. Thirty young males (mean ± standard deviation [SD]: 24.1 ± 2.9 years) participated in this double‐blind, randomized, sham‐controlled crossover study. Participants spent five nights in the laboratory. The first night was an adaptation/screening night. The second and fourth nights were baseline nights, each followed consecutively by an experimental night with either Wi‐Fi (maximum: psSAR10g = <25 mW/kg; 6 min average: <6.4 mW/kg) or sham exposure. Declarative, emotional and procedural memory performances were measured using a word pair, a sequential finger tapping and a face recognition task, respectively. Furthermore, learning‐associated brain activity parameters (power spectra for slow oscillations and in the spindle frequency range) were analysed. Although emotional and procedural memory were not affected by RF‐EMF exposure, overnight improvement in the declarative task was significantly better in the Wi‐Fi condition. However, none of the post‐learning sleep‐specific parameters was affected by exposure. Thus, the significant effect of Wi‐Fi exposure on declarative memory observed at the behavioural level was not supported by results at the physiological level. Due to these inconsistencies, this result could also be a random finding.

Does Sleep Selectively Strengthen Certain Memories Over Others Based on Emotion and Perceived Future Relevance?

“…Bueno-Lopez et al 93 examined whether the supposed sleep-altering effects of exposure to the radio frequency electromagnetic fields associated with Wi-Fi networks would affect sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Results revealed no main effect of exposure to Wi-Fi as compared to sham during sleep, and no interaction with emotion.…”

Emotional Distraction in E-learning Environment: Effect on Declarative Memory and Exploration of Physiological Marker

“…Knight and Mather (2009) confirmed this idea that the decline in memory performance caused by emotion is generally found when memory testing is carried out in a short or immediate time lag. On the topic of consolidation, sleep-dependent memory consolidation is an increasingly popular research topic, and the word-pairing task is one of the frequently used tests to measure this process see, for example, (Bueno-Lopez et al, 2020;Prehn-Kristensen et al, 2020;Reda et al, 2021). Implementing a sleep phase to investigate the ED effect on the consolidation of memory would clarify this interaction.…”