A linear relationship between postnatal geomagnetic activity and self-reports of epileptic seizures in young adults

To test the hypothesis of a linear relationship between the intensity of ge omagnetic activity during the first two days after birth and the developmen t of epilepsy, the responses of the item "I have had an epileptic seizure" was obtained from the Personal Philosophy Inventories of 1,453 students who had been enrolled in first-year psychology courses over a 13-yr, period. T he only statistically significant effect was linear and was between the suc cessive 10 nT (nnnoTesla) increments of the intensity of geomagnetic activi ty Juring the two days after birth and the percentage of students who repor ted epileptic seizures. The percentage of subjects reporting a history of s eizures ranged from 1% for those born when the activity was less than 10 nT to 4% for those born when this activity exceeded 40 nT.