RF-037Original text reviewed

LTE effects on sound-evoked cortical activity during experimental inflammation

Souffi et al. · 2022 · Scientific Reports

The reported finding

In LPS-treated rats, LTE exposure reduced sound-evoked response strength and increased cortical sound thresholds. The same principal response-strength and threshold effects were not seen in healthy rats. Microglial morphology was not significantly changed.

Reading it carefully

An acute anaesthetized inflammatory animal model; cortical physiology does not demonstrate clinical deafness or human EHS. Small animal-level n and analyses based on multiple electrode positions leave uncertainty over full between-animal generalizability. No human-limit compliance conclusion from cortex SAR.

Inside the study

Exposure conditions

Single 2-hour head-only LTE-1800 MHz exposure under ketamine/xylazine anaesthesia. Mean brain SAR 0.37±0.23 W/kg; auditory cortex 0.50±0.08 W/kg (model SD). FDTD and homogeneous-phantom temperature-rise dosimetry differed by <30%. Heating pad maintained body temperature around 37°C.

Design & controls

Adult male Wistar rats. Electrophysiology in four groups of five rats: LTE/sham with and without LPS250µg/kg i.p.24 h earlier. Separate LPS histology n=5-6/group. Exposure-zero sham; waveform trigger and histological analyses blinded.

Statistics

LPS groups: total tone-evoked response strength P=.0017; response at best frequency P=.0445; vocalization-response strength/reliability P=.043. Analyses used electrode-array positions to address nesting, with 25-26 positions but only 5 animals/group.

Related research & shared cohorts

French ANSES/Paris-Sud-Limoges neuroinflammation programme; linked to earlier GSM experiments and Lameth 2025 RF-021. Journal DOI and preprint 10.1101/2022.01.13.476168 are one work, not independent evidence.

The protection question raised

Can an inflammatory state change vulnerability to exposure? The contrast with healthy rats makes susceptibility testable, while anaesthesia, small animal numbers and electrode-level analyses limit inference about people or hearing loss.

Source verification

Original full methods/results, Table 1,Figures 2,4-5 and disclosures reviewed via Scite fulltext and PMC original XML.

Where to find the result

Methods/Animals,LTE head exposure,Electrophysiological recordings,Statistical analysis;Table 1;Fig 2;Fig 4 versus Fig 5.

Editorial notices

No editorial notice surfaced in the Scite/primary-record checks used for this record; this is not a comprehensive clean-bill certification.

Funding

ANSES French National Research Program for Environmental and Occupational Health 2018/2RF/16; Investissements d'avenir ANR-10-IAIHU-06.

Conflicts of interest

Authors declare no competing interests in original article.

Original publication

Samira Souffi; Julie Lameth; Quentin Gaucher; Délia Arnaud-Cormos; Philippe Lévêque; Jean-Marc Edeline; Michel Mallat. Exposure to 1800 MHz LTE electromagnetic fields under proinflammatory conditions decreases the response strength and increases the acoustic threshold of auditory cortical neurons. Scientific Reports. 2022;12(1):4063. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07923-9.

Plain-text record