Joachim Röschke

Effects of Pulsed High-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields on Human Sleep

In the present study we investigated the influence of pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic fields of digital mobile radio telephones on sleep in healthy humans. Besides a hypnotic effect with shortening of sleep onset latency, a REM suppressive effect with reduction of duration and percentage of REM sleep was found. Moreover, spectral analysis revealed qualitative alterations of the EEG signal during REM sleep with an increased spectral power density. Knowing the relevance of REM sleep for adequate information processing in the brain, especially concerning mnestic functions and learning processes, the results emphasize the necessity to carry out further investigations on the interaction of this type of electromagnetic fields and the human organism.

Discrimination of sleep stages: a comparison between spectral and nonlinear EEG measures

During recent years, methods from nonlinear dynamics were introduced into the analysis of EEG signals. Although from a theoretical point of view nonlinear measures quantify properties being independent from conventional spectral measures, it is a crucial question whether in practice nonlinear EEG measures yield additional information, which is not redundant to the information gained by spectral analysis. Therefore, we compared the ability of several spectral and nonlinear measures to discriminate different sleep stages. We evaluated spectral measures (relative delta power, spectral edge, spectral entropy and first spectral moment), and nonlinear measures (correlation dimension D2, largest Lyapunov exponent LI, and approximated Kolmogorof entropy K2), and additionally the stochastic time domain based measure entropy of amplitudes. For 12 healthy subjects these measures were calculated from sleep EEG segments of 2:44 min duration, each segment unambiguously corresponding to one of the sleep stages I, II, SWS and REM. Results were statistically evaluated by multivariate and univariate analyses of variance and by discriminant analyses. Generally, nonlinear measures (D2 and L1) performed better in discriminating sleep stages I and II, whereas spectral measures showed advantages in discriminating stage II and SWS. Combinations of spectral and nonlinear measures yielded a better overall discrimination of sleep stages than spectral measures alone. The best overall discrimination was reached even without inclusion of any of the spectral measures. It can be concluded that nonlinear measures yield additional information, which improves the ability to discriminate sleep stages and which may in general improve the ability to distinguish different psychophysiological states. This confirms the importance and practical reliability of the application of nonlinear methods to EEG analysis.

Human sleep under the influence of pulsed radiofrequency electromagnetic fields: A polysomnographic study using standardized conditions

To investigate the influence of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of cellular phone GSM signals on human sleep electroencephalographic (EEG) pattern, all-night polysomnographies of 24 healthy male subjects were recorded, both with and without exposure to a circular polarized EMF (900 MHz, pulsed with a frequency of 217 Hz, pulse width 577 micros, power flux density 0.2 W/m2. Suppression of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep as well as a sleep-inducing effect under field exposure did not reach statistical significance, so that previous results indicating alterations of these sleep parameters could not be replicated. Spectral power analysis also did not reveal any alterations of the EEG rhythms during EMF exposure. The failure to confirm our previous results might be due to dose-dependent effects of the EMF on the human sleep profile.

The SIESTA project polygraphic and clinical database

The SIESTA project had two major goals: developing new tools for analyzing computer-based sleep recordings and creating a reference database for sleep-related features. Basically, both goals have been reached, although validation and fine tuning of the sleep analyzer is still on-going. Investigations on the Web interface will be finished soon and a documentation of the database (including a CD-ROM with all test forms and all clinical, psychometric and actigraphic data as well as all R&K-scorings) will be published. Besides its scientific impact, the SIESTA project also emphasizes two other important aspects: the need of national and international cooperation between different experts and disciplines and the importance of standardized methods in scientific and clinical research.

No short-term effects of digital mobile radio telephone on the awake human electroencephalogram.

A recent study reported the results of an exploratory study of alterations of the quantitative sleep profile due to the effects of a digital mobile radio telephone. Rapid eye movement (REM) was suppressed, and the spectral power density in the 8-13 Hz frequency range during REM sleep was altered. The aim of the present study was to illuminate the influence of digital mobile radio telephone on the awake electroencephalogram (EEG) of healthy subjects. For this purpose, we investigated 34 male subjects in a single-blind cross-over design experiment by measuring spontaneous EEGs under closed-eyes condition from scalp positions C3 and C4 and comparing the effects of an active (0.05 mW/cm2) and an inactive digital mobile radio telephone (GSM) system. During exposure of nearly 3.5 min to the 900 MHz electromagnetic field pulsed at a frequency of 217 Hz and with a pulse width of 580 microseconds, we could not detect any difference in the awake EEGs in terms of spectral power density measures.

Interrater reliability between scorers from eight European sleep laboratories in subjects with different sleep disorders.

Interrater variability of sleep stage scorings is a well‐known phenomenon. The SIESTA project offered the opportunity to analyse interrater reliability (IRR) between experienced scorers from eight European sleep laboratories within a large sample of patients with different (sleep) disorders: depression, general anxiety disorder with and without non‐organic insomnia, Parkinsons disease, period limb movements in sleep and sleep apnoea. The results were based on 196 recordings from 98 patients (73 males: 52.3 ± 12.1 years and 25 females: 49.5 ± 11.9 years) for which two independent expert scorings from two different laboratories were available. Cohens κ was used to evaluate the IRR on the basis of epochs and intraclass correlation was used to analyse the agreement on quantitative sleep parameters. The overall level of agreement when five different stages were distinguished was κ = 0.6816 (76.8%), which in terms of κ reflects a ‘substantial’ agreement ( Landis and Koch, 1977 ). For different groups of patients κ values varied from 0.6138 (Parkinsons disease) to 0.8176 (generalized anxiety disorder). With regard to (sleep) stages, the IRR was highest for rapid eye movement (REM), followed by Wake, slow‐wave sleep (SWS), non‐rapid eye movement 2 (NREM2) and NREM1. The results of regression analysis showed that age and sex only had a statistically significant effect on κ when the (sleep) stages are considered separately. For NREM2 and SWS a statistically significant decrease of IRR with age has been observed and the IRR for SWS was lower for males than for females. These variations of IRR most probably reflect changes of the sleep electroencephalography (EEG) with age and gender.

The dimensionality of human's electroencephalogram during sleep

In order to perform an analysis of nonlinear EEG-dynamics we investigated the EEG of ten male probands during sleep. According to Rechtschaffen and Kales (1968) we scored the sleep-EEG and applied an algorithm, proposed by Grassberger and Proccaccia (1983) to compute the correlation dimension of different sleep stages. The correlation dimension characterizes the dynamics of the EEG signal and estimates the degrees of freedom of the signal under study. We could demonstrate, that the EEG of slow wave sleep stages depicts a dimensionality, which is two units smaller than that of light or REM sleep.

Deterministic chaos and the first positive Lyapunov exponent: a nonlinear analysis of the human electroencephalogram during sleep

Under selected conditions, nonlinear dynamical systems, which can be described by deterministic models, are able to generate so-called deterministic chaos. In this case the dynamics show a sensitive dependence on initial conditions, which means that different states of a system, being arbitrarily close initially, will become macroscopically separated for sufficiently long times. In this sense, the unpredictability of the EEG might be a basic phenomenon of its chaotic character. Recent investigations of the dimensionality of EEG attractors in phase space have led to the assumption that the EEG can be regarded as a deterministic process which should not be mistaken for simple noise. The calculation of dimensionality estimates the degrees of freedom of a signal. Nevertheless, it is difficult to decide from this kind of analysis whether a process is quasiperiodic or chaotic. Therefore, we performed a new analysis by calculating the first positive Lyapunov exponent L1 from sleep EEG data. Lyapunov exponents measure the mean exponential expansion or contraction of a flow in phase space. L1 is zero for periodic as well as quasiperiodic processes, but positive in the case of chaotic processes expressing the sensitive dependence on initial conditions. We calculated L1 for sleep EEG segments of 15 healthy men corresponding to the sleep stages I, II, III, IV, and REM (according to Rechtschaffen and Kales). Our investigations support the assumption that EEG signals are neither quasiperiodic waves nor a simple noise. Moreover, we found statistically significant differences between the values of L1 for different sleep stages. All together, this kind of analysis yields a useful extension of the characterization of EEG signals in terms of nonlinear dynamical system theory.

Increased bioavailability of oral melatonin after fluvoxamine coadministration

Fluvoxamine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, is known to elevate melatonin serum concentrations. It has not been clear whether these effects might be attributed to an increased melatonin production or to an decreased elimination of melatonin. The latter hypothesis was tested by this study.

Effects of Pulsed High-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields on the Neuroendocrine System

The influence of pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted from a circularly polarized antenna on the neuroendocrine system in healthy humans was investigated (900 MHz electromagnetic field, pulsed with 217 Hz, average power density 0.02 mW/cm2). Nocturnal hormone profiles of growth hormone (GH), cortisol, luteinizing hormone (LH) and melatonin were determined under polysomnographic control. An alteration in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis activity was found with a slight, transient elevation in the cortisol serum level immediately after onset of field exposure which persisted for 1 h. For GH, LH and melatonin, no significant effects were found under exposure to the field compared to the placebo condition, regarding both total hormone production during the entire night and dynamic characteristics of the secretion pattern. Also the evaluation of the sleep EEG data revealed no significant alterations under field exposure, although there was a trend to an REM suppressive effect. The results indicate that weak high-frequency electromagnetic fields have no effects on nocturnal hormone secretion except for a slight elevation in cortisol production which is transient, pointing to an adaptation of the organism to the stimulus.