NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF FLICKERING LIGHT IN PATIENTS WITH PERCEIVED ELECTRICAL HYPERSENSITIVITY

An increasing number of people in Sweden are claiming that they are hy persensitive to electricity, These patients suffer from shin as well a s neurological symptoms when they are near computer monitors, fluoresc ent tubes, or other electrical appliances, Provocation studies with el ectromagnetic fields emitted from these appliances have, with only one exception, all been negative, indicating that there are other factors in the office environment that can effect the autonomic and/or centra l nervous system resulting in the symptoms reported, Flickering light is one such factor and was therefore chosen as the exposure parameter in this study, Ten patients complaining of electrical hypersensitivity and the same number of healthy voluntary control subjects were expose d to amplitude-modulated light, The sensitivity of the brain to this t ype of visual stimulation was tested by means of objective electrophys iological methods such as electroretinography and visual evoked potent ial, A higher amplitude of brain cortical responses at all frequencies of stimulation was found when comparing patients with the control sub jects, whereas no differences in retinal responses were revealed.