Discussion
The results of this pilot study suggest that the Q-Link impacts on the neural function effects of the MP in terms of both resting EEG and evoked neural responses to auditory stimuli.

With regard to resting EEG, the primary effect was an increase in high frequency activity (gamma) at midline, fronto-posterior sites that was related to a strong enhancement of gamma over the course of the twenty-minute condition (Fig. 2a/b). The addition of the Q-Link also resulted in trend-level attenuation of the MP-related changes to resting delta and the increase in resting alpha over the MP-exposure period, suggesting that the addition of the Q-Link does reduce a portion of the MP effect (Fig. 1a/b). Although the attenuation was trend-level only, the conservative nature of the statistical analyses can be seen in Figure 3 where the control and Q-Link group means are indistinguishable. This suggests that where there were significant differences between the control and MP conditions (Croft et al., in press) but only trend-level differences between the MP and Q-Link+MP conditions, this was due to large variability in the Q-Link+MP condition. There were also alterations to phase-locked neural responses. The addition of the Q-Link caused a right-hemisphere decrease and left-hemisphere increase in the delta attenuation that occurred as a function of exposure duration, a laterality reversal in the alpha band, and a global decrease in the gamma band response. This gamma response was reduced across the scalp, with the reduction largest at frontal midline sites, the result being an attenuation of the MP-related gamma enhancement.

As there is no consensus with regards the meaning of the above resting EEG and neural responses, we are not in a position to fully evaluate the effects. What we may interpret though is how the Q-Link-related effects related to the MP-related effects on neural function, and also how these effects related to the behavioural and psychological indices employed. With regard to the effect of the addition of the Q-Link on the MP-related effects, these were always in the opposite direction to the MP-related effects. That is, the addition of the Q-Link resulted in function that more closely approximated the control condition, suggesting that it was attenuating the effect of the MP. Such attenuation is consistent with the effect of other EMF devices on stressors. For example, it has been reported that low frequency pulsed electromagnetic fields have protective effects on myocardial infarcts (Albertini et al., 1999; Di Carlo et al., 1999) and hypoxia (Di Carlo et al., 2000), and more closely paralleling the present study, it has been reported that the bioeffects of microwaves are mitigated by the addition of low frequency noise (Litovitz et al., 1997). With regard to the relation between Q-Link-related changes and both psychological activation levels and performance, no unequivocal relations were observed. However, trend-level relations were found. Specifically, the Q-Link-related resting gamma increase was related to decreased activation, the Q-Link-related attenuation of MP-related resting alpha increases related to increased activation, and the Q-Link-related lateralization of evoked delta was related to faster reaction times. As these relations were only trend-level it is difficult to draw too much from them, however, they do suggest that as with the effect of MPs themselves (Croft et al., in press), the addition of the Q-Link resulted in multidimensional effects.

Although it has been demonstrated that the addition of the Q-Link had an effect on neural function (and a trend-level attenuating effect on some of the MP-related changes to neural function), it has not shown which aspect of the Q-Link has caused these effects. That is, although the Q-Link is thought to exert its influence via the interaction of subatomic activity and the biofield, what the study has shown is that the addition of the whole Q-Link mechanism (including D.C. and mains frequency as well as sympathetic resonance technology (SRTTM; Clarus Products International, L.L.C. San Rafael, CA) has an effect), and so it is possible that the influence was due to the D.C. or 50 Hz power source. Such an interpretation is consistent with the observation that the higher frequencies of neural activity (closer to 50 Hz) were more affected by the addition of the Q-Link (30-45 Hz). An extension of this pilot needs to determine this issue through experimental control (e.g. keeping D.C. and 50 Hz constant in the two conditions and only manipulating the SRT™ aspect of the Q-Link), but at present the results should be interpreted as being due to either the power source or the SRT™ technology. However, it should be noted that the Q-Link was not physically close to the electrodes (>30 cm), the distributions of Q-Link effects were not related to the distance between electrodes and the device (but were similar to those typically attributed to neural activity), the magnitude of 50 Hz leakage from the 9 V transformer was too small to account for the Q-Link effect directly, and further, the Q-Link’s affect on gamma increased over the course of the exposure. This argues strongly against the thesis that the effects may have been due to direct influence of the Q-Link on the electrodes, and for the thesis that the effects were due to the interaction of neural function with the addition of the Q-Link.
The present pilot study suggests that the addition of the Q-Link to an active MP-exposure does have an affect on neural function in that it altered both resting EEG and the phase-locked neural response to auditory stimuli. Whether the response was beneficial could not be determined from the present study, however, as there were trends to reduced MP-related effects in the Q-Link+MP condition, this suggests that it was attenuating the MP-related effects. Further research is required to substantiate and clarify these findings

Acknowledgements:
This research was funded by Clarus Products International, LLC, San Rafael, CA, U.S.A.

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