Biology

Questions tagged [electrical-stimulation]

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Electrical stimulation of the human body can be applied to restore bodily functions. Notable examples are auditory and visual prostheses to make the deaf hear and the blind see, and functional electrical stimulation to make the limp walk. It can be used for diagnosis (e.g., electromyography). Also, electrical stimulation can be used to treat (mental) illnesses (electrotherapy). Lastly, it can be the cause of injuries (e.g., due to a lightning strike).

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106 views

Is there a physiological reason why direct lightning strikes are not lethal for everyone or does it all come down to dumb luck?

Some people who get directly struck by lightning and some more than once (starts at 00:25) survive while others die instantly or later on due to complications/injuries. Looking at a wiki page for ...
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1answer
55 views

How is the electrical potential difference distributed between two stimulating electrodes?

Suppose I set the voltage value of an isolated stimulator with a floating ground. I place one electrode above the spinal cord (positive) and the other placed subcutaneously far away from the spinal ...
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1answer
72 views

What are ECT parameters?

ECT or shock treatment is used to treat psychological disorders. How much voltage, current and duration is used for this? Wikipedia mentions a treatment of 0.8 Ampere for 5 seconds.
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51 views

What is the death mechanism of an electrocuted Mosquito?

While using the Electric bat, does the mosquito get killed by primary electrocution, or it secondarily by burning?
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2answers
606 views

Can anyone explain the idea of anodic nerve stimulation?

Nerves get stimulated under the cathode, according to the conventional current direction. But in some research, it is said that anodic stimulation or anodic current stimulation can activate neurons. ...
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3answers
158 views

Can neurons be inhibited with electric current?

It is well known the electricity can be used to fire neurons. But can it be used to inhibit neuronal firing? This is in the context of extracellular stimulation. In extracellular stimulation, it is ...
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1answer
107 views

Spatiotemporal patterns in neural networks

It turns out that my work in nonlinear dynamics directly maps to a close variant of the Integrate and Fire model. My model produces spatiotemporal patterns that resemble foam. I have to stress that ...
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0answers
45 views

Control of neural systems [closed]

It turns out that my work in nonlinear dynamics directly maps to Integrate and Fire models and could even provide a new way to control them (manipulate the firing rates). However, it is unclear to me ...
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29 views

How much current various kind of body tissues can tolerate without any serious damage? [closed]

Human body can tolerate some amount of current. How much current (and duration) various kind of body tissues can tolerate without any serious damage?
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1answer
135 views

Organic battery?

Similar to the Matrix movie where humans were used as a source of electricity but different by using electric eels. Farmed like tuna what would be the electricity exchange to the food they eat?
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1answer
3k views

Why does an electric shock contract the muscle?

From what I understand, the electrical impulse in our nerve cells is not made of electrons, but of ions that move from different environments with different concentrations, which is totally not ...
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1answer
2k views

Can we taste electrons?

Why does licking a 9-Volt battery elicits a taste sensation? Can taste be stimulated by electrical stimulation?
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52 views

How does current delivered by a neural stimulator propagate in the brain?

I have been trying to find good literature on how a stimulus current propagates through a medium that contains both gray and white matter (like the brain). Is it safe to assume that a current will ...
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1answer
2k views

Why is stimulation of nerve tissue with a negative pulse called “cathodic” stimulation?

By definition, the cathode is defined as the terminal through which current exits a polarized device. But in the context of neuromodulation, such as spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation, ...
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1answer
777 views

What dangers would the wireless transmission of power through microwaves pose to living organisms?

If we were one day able to harness the power of "wireless electricity", and INTEGRATE it into society, what disadvantages and/or dangers to living organisms would become relevant at that point? To my ...
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32 views

Electrically facilitated active transport across a membrane

I'm trying to go back to school to do a PhD in control theory, specifically concerned with control of glucose. The glucose system can be controlled using two chemicals: insulin and glucagon. I was ...
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3answers
2k views

Why can humans feel electricity?

What evolutionary process has provided humans with the ability of feeling electric current? Besides lightning and electric eel, what natural hazards include electricity that poses a threat to humans?
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2answers
2k views

How to make a fake auditory signal?

My question is about making fake auditory signals. The ear collects sounds from the environment, which are transformed into a neural signal by the hair cells in the inner ear. This signal is sent ...
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1answer
200 views

How can electric fields inhibit tumor growth?

In MIT's Technology review it is explained that electric fields can cause dividing cancer cells to explode, while these fields have no significant impact on non-dividing tissues. The original research ...
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2answers
20k views

Why does an electrical shock freeze up muscles?

Why is it when someone comes into contact with an electrical supply that their body freezes up and is unable to move away from the electrical source? Can someone explain this through a physiological ...