LONDON (AFP) ― British scientists launched a major government-commissioned study on Tuesday into the effects of mobile phone usage on the developing brains of children.
About 2,500 children from London will be tested at the age of 11 and 12, and then again two years later, to assess how their cognitive abilities develop in relation to their changing use of phones and other wireless technologies.
Professor Patrick Haggard, deputy director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, said it was the “largest follow-up study of its kind in adolescents worldwide.”
 |
| The World Health Organization has called for research into the effects of mobile phone use on young people. (AFP) |
The World Health Organization says there is no convincing evidence that mobile phones affect health, but existing data only goes back about 15 years.
It has called for further research, particularly into young people and those who use mobile phones over a long period.
In the study, the children will undertake classroom-based computerized tasks to measure cognitive abilities that underpin functions such as memory and attention.
“Cognition is essentially how we think, how we make decisions and how we process and recall information,” said Dr Mireille Toledano of Imperial College London, the principal investigator on the study.
