Bioelectromagnetism

Bioelectromagnetism (sometimes equated with bioelectricity) refers to the static voltageof biological cellsand to the electric currentsthat flow in living tissues, such as nervesand muscles, as a result of action potentials.

Description

Biological cells use bioelectricity to store metabolic energy, to do work or trigger internal changes, and to signal one another. Bioelectromagnetism is the electric current produced by action potentials along with the magnetic fieldsthey generate through the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction.

Bioelectromagnetism is studied primarily through the techniques of electrophysiology. In the late eighteenth century, the Italianphysicianand physicist, Luigi Galvani, first recorded the phenomenon while dissecting a frogat a table where he had been conducting experiments with static electricity. Galvani coined the term animal electricity to describe the phenomenon, while contemporaries labeled it galvanism. Galvani and contemporaries regarded muscle activation as resulting from an electrical fluid or substance in the nerves.

Bioelectromagnetism is an aspect of all living things, including all plants and animals. Bioenergeticsis the study of energyrelationships of living organisms. Biodynamicsdeals with the energy utilization and the activities of organisms. Some animals have acute bioelectric sensors and are highly sensitive to magnetic fields, such as migratory birds, which are believed to navigate in part by orienting with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. Also, sharksare more sensitive to local interaction in electromagnetic fields than most humans. Other animals, such as the electric eel, are able to generate large electric fieldsoutside their bodies.

In the life sciences, biomedical engineeringuses concepts of circuittheory, molecular biology, pharmacology, and bioelectricity. Bioelectromagnetism is associated with biorhythmsand chronobiology. Biofeedbackis used in physiologyand psychologyas to monitor rhythmic cycles of physical, mental, and emotional characteristics and as a technique for teaching the control of bioelectric functions.

Bioelectromagnetism involves the interaction of ions. Bioelectromagnetism is sometimes difficult to understand because of the differing types of bioelectricity, such as brainwaves, myoelectricity (e.g., heart-muscle phenomena), and other related subdivisions of the same general bioelectromagnetic phenomena. One such phenomenon is a brainwave, which neurophysiologystudies, and is where bioelectromagnetic fluctuations of voltagebetween parts of the cerebral cortexthat are detectable with an electroencephalograph. This is primarily studied in the brainby way of the electroencephalogram or "EEG."

Volume Conductors

In standard electrical engineering guidelines, the 3 fundamental units of Resistance, Voltage & Current are seen as inhomogeneous values(ie: discrete). However, in Bioelectromagnetism these 3 fundamental units are treated as a single homogeneous object, a method of working with this rule is a visual model called a Volume conductor....

See also

• Signals (biology)
• Electrophysiology
• Electroencephalography
  • Brain waves
• Membrane potential
  • Resting potential
  • Action potential
• Biorhythm
• Electrochemical potential
• Electrochemistry

Quotes

"We now realize that the phenomena of chemical interactions, and, ultimately life itself, are to be understood in terms of electromagnetism". Richard P. Feynman

External links, resources, and references

Information

• Malmivuo, Jaakko, and Robert Plonsey, "Bioelectromagnetism, Principles and Applications of Bioelectric and Biomagnetic Fields". Oxford University Press, New York - Oxford. 1995.
• Direct and Inverse Bioelectric Field Problems
• Bioelectricity. Biophysics lectures.
• The Pseudoscience of Coghill Research Laboratories

Groups

• International Journal of Bioelectromagnetism
• International Society for Bioelectromagnetism
• Bioelectromagnetism Research Group
• Living State Physics Group
• Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. Laboratory for Bioelectricity/Biomagnetism, Berlin.
• PSI - Bak- Human Bio-magnetism.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectromagnetism Wikipedia article Bioelectromagnetism.