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Quatermass II is a British science-fiction serial, originally broadcast by BBC

Television in 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel
Kneale, and the first of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives.
It is also the earliest surviving complete British science-fiction television
production. The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British
Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers.
His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration
at the highest levels of the British Government. As some of Quatermass's closest
colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe
rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian
testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind. Although
sometimes compared unfavourably to the first and third Quatermass serials,
Quatermass II was praised for its allegorical concerns of the damaging effects of
industrialisation and the corruption of governments by big business. It is
described on the British Film Institute's "Screenonline" website as "compulsive
viewing." (Full article...)
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Caracalla
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the whole town, but the Development Corporation decided against it?

... that DeKalb County commissioner and former Georgia State Senator Connie
Stokes was abandoned by her alcoholic mother as a child?
... that Friedrich Nietzsche, author of The Antichrist, gave a set of essays
including On the Pathos of Truth as a Christmas gift to the daughter of Franz
Liszt?
... that Nawab Faizunnesa was the first woman in south Asia to be awarded
the title of "Nawab" by Queen Victoria, for her campaign for female education
and other social issues?
... that Vaksala Church was built next to a thing?

In the news
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Chad, Nigeria, Chile, Lithuania, and
Saudi Arabia are elected to the United
Nations Security Council, but Saudi
Arabia declines its seat.
Lao Airlines Flight 301 (aircraft type
pictured) crashes on approach to Pakse
Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on
board.
U.S. President Barack Obama signs a
bill passed by Congress to reopen the
federal government and raise the
debt limit.
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton
becomes the youngest winner of the
Man Booker Prize.
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes
the Philippines, resulting in more than
100 deaths.

On this day...

October 22

1740 A two-week massacre of

ethnic Chinese in Batavia, Dutch East
Indies, came to an end with at least
10,000 people killed.
1797 Dropping from a hydrogen
balloon 3,200 feet (980 m) above Paris,
Andr-Jacques Garnerin carried out
the first descent using a frameless
parachute (schematic pictured).
1877 The Blantyre mining disaster,
Scotland's worst mining accident,
occurred when an explosion at a colliery
in Blantyre killed 207 miners.
1907 A bank run forced New York's
Knickerbocker Trust Company to
suspend operations, which triggered the
Panic of 1907.
1962 Cold War: U.S. President John F.
Kennedy announced that Soviet nuclear
weapons had been discovered in Cuba
and that he had ordered a naval
"quarantine" of the island nation.
More anniversaries: October 21
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Mona Lisa (La Joconde) is a half-length

portrait of a woman by Leonardo da
Vinci which was probably completed
between 1503 and 1506, with further
refinement continuing until 1517.
Though the painting is thought to be of
Lisa del Giocondo, a lack of definitive
evidence has long fueled alternative
theories as to the sitter's identity,
including that it may represent
Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant
memory. It has been held in the Louvre
in Paris since 1797 and is acclaimed as
"the best known, the most visited, the
most written about, the most sung
about, the most parodied work of art in
the world."
Painting: Leonardo da Vinci

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Bioelectromagnetics
Bioelectromagnetics, also known as bioelectromagnetism, is the study of the
interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological entities. Areas of study
include electrical or electromagnetic fields produced by living cells, tissues or
organisms; for example, the cell membrane potential and the electric currents
that flow in nerves and muscles, as a result of action potentials. Others include
animal navigation utilizing the geomagnetic field; potential effects of man-made
sources of electromagnetic fields like mobile phones; and developing new
therapies to treat various conditions. The term can also refer to the ability of
living cells, tissues, and organisms to produce electrical fields and the response
of cells to electromagnetic fields.

Biological phenomena
Short-lived electrical events called action potentials occur in several types of
animal cells which are called excitable cells, a category of cell include neurons,
muscle cells, and endocrine cells, as well as in some plant cells. These action
potentials are used to facilitate inter-cellular communication and activate
intracellular processes. The physiological phenomena of action potentials are
possible because voltage-gated ion channels allow the resting potential caused
by electrochemical gradient on either side of a cell membrane to resolve.

Bioelectromagnetism is studied primarily through the techniques of

electrophysiology. In the late eighteenth century, the Italian physician and
physicist Luigi Galvani first recorded the phenomenon while dissecting a frog at
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.
Some usually aquatic animals have acute bioelectric sensors providing a sense
known as electroreception while migratory birds navigate in part by orienteering
with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. In an extreme application of
electromagnetism the electric eel is able to generate a large electric field outside
its body used for hunting and self defense through a dedicated electric organ.

Thermal effects
Most of the molecules in the human body interact weakly with electromagnetic
fields in the radiofrequency or extremely low frequency bands.[citation needed] One
such interaction is absorption of energy from the fields, which can cause tissue
to heat up; more intense fields will produce greater heating. This can lead to
biological effects ranging from muscle relaxation (as produced by a diathermy
device) to burns.Many nations and regulatory bodies like the International
Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection have established safety
guidelines to limit EMF exposure to a non-thermal level. This can be defined as
either heating only to the point where the excess heat can be dissipated, or as a
fixed increase in temperature not detectable with current instruments like 0.1C.
[citation needed]
However, biological effects have been shown to be present for these
non-thermal exposures;[citation needed] Various mechanisms have been proposed to
explain these,1 and there may be several mechanisms underlying the differing
phenomena observed. Biological effects of weak electromagnetic fields are the
subject of study in magnetobiology.[citation needed]

Behavioral effects
Many behavioral effects at different intensities have been reported from
exposure to magnetic fields, particularly with pulsed magnetic fields. The
specific pulseform used appears to be an important factor for the behavioural
effect seen; for example, a pulsed magnetic field originally designed for
spectroscopic MRI was found to alleviate symptoms in bipolar patients, while
another MRI pulse had no effect. A whole-body exposure to a pulsed magnetic
field was found to alter standing balance and pain perception in other studies.

1Binhi, 2002

TMS and related effects

A strong changing magnetic field can induce electrical currents in conductive
tissue such as the brain. Since the magnetic field penetrates tissue, it can be
generated outside of the head to induce currents within, causing transcranial
magnetic stimulation (TMS). These currents depolarize neurons in a selected
part of the brain, leading to changes in the patterns of neural activity. In
repeated pulse TMS therapy or rTMS, the presence of incompatible EEG
electrodes can result in electrode heating and, in severe cases, skin burns. A
number of scientists and clinicians are attempting to use TMS to replace
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat disorders such as severe depression.
Instead of one strong electric shock through the head as in ECT, a large number
of relatively weak pulses are delivered in TMS therapy, typically at the rate of
about 10 pulses per second. If very strong pulses at a rapid rate are delivered to
the brain, the induced currents can cause convulsions much like in the original
electroconvulsive therapy. Sometimes, this is done deliberately in order to treat
depression, such as in ECT.

Health effects of artificial electromagnetic fields

and current use in medical therapy
While health effects from extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic
fields (0 to 300 Hz) generated by power lines, and radio/microwave frequencies
(RF) (10 MHz - 300 GHz) emitted by radio antennas and wireless networks have
been well studied, the intermediate range (IR) used increasingly in modern
telecommunications (300 Hz to 10 MHz) has been studied far less. Direct effects
of electromagnetism on human health have been difficult to prove, and
documented life threatening interferences from electromagnetic fields are
limited to medical devices such as pacemakers and other electronic implants.2
However, a number of studies have been conducted with artificial magnetic fields
and electric fields to investigate for example their effects on cell metabolism,
apoptosis and tumor growth.3 Electromagnetic radiation in the intermediate
frequency range has found a place in modern medical practice for the treatment
of bone healing and for nerve stimulation and regeneration; it is now also
approved as a novel cancer therapy in form of Tumor Treating Fields, which are
alternating electric fields in the frequency range of 100300 kHz. Since some of
these methods involve magnetic fields that invoke electric currents in biological
tissues and others only involve electric fields, they are strictly speaking
electrotherapies albeit their application modi with modern electronic equipment
have placed them in the category of bioelectromagnetic interactions.
2Electromagnetic fields & public health: Intermediate Frequencies (IF). Information sheet
February 2005. World Health Organization. Retrieved Aug 2013.
3Wartenberg, M., Wirtz, N., Grob, A., Niedermeier, W., Hescheler, J., Peters, S. C. and Sauer, H.
(2008), "Direct current electrical fields induce apoptosis in oral mucosa cancer cells by NADPH
oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species". Bioelectromagnetics, 29: 4754. doi:
10.1002/bem.20361

References
Organizations
The Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS)
European BioElectomagnetics Association (EBEA)
Society for Physical Regulation in Biology and Medicine (SPRBM) (formerly the
Bioelectrical Repair and Growth Society, BRAGS)
International Society for Bioelectromagnetism (ISBEM)
The Bioelectromagnetics Lab at University College Cork, Ireland
Institute of Bioelectromagnetism
Vanderbilt University, Living State Physics Group, archived page
Ragnar Granit Institute.
Institute of Photonics and Electronics AS CR, Department of
Bioelectrodynamics.

Books
Becker, Robert O.; Andrew A. Marino, Electromagnetism and Life, State
University of New York Press, Albany, 1982. ISBN 0-87395-561-7.
Becker, Robert O.; The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of
Life, William Morrow & Co, 1985. ISBN 0-688-00123-8.
Becker, Robert O.; Cross Currents: The Promise of Electromedicine, the Perils
of Electropollution, Tarcher, 1989. ISBN 0-87477-536-1.
Binhi, V.N., Magnetobiology: Underlying Physical Problems. San Diego:
Academic Press, 2002. ISBN 0-12-100071-0.
Brodeur Paul; Currents of Death, Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN 0-7432-1308-4.
Carpenter, David O.; Sinerik Ayrapetyan, Biological Effects of Electric and
Magnetic Fields, Volume 1 : Sources and Mechanisms, Academic Press, 1994.
ISBN 0-12-160261-3.
Carpenter, David O.; Sinerik Ayrapetyan, Biological Effects of Electric and
Magnetic Fields : Beneficial and Harmful Effects (Vol 2), Academic Press, 1994.
ISBN 0-12-160261-3.
Chiabrera A. (Editor), Interactions Between Electromagnetic Fields and Cells,
Springer, 1985. ISBN 0-306-42083-X.
Habash, Riadh W. Y.; Electromagnetic Fields and Radiation: Human Bioeffects
and Safety, Marcel Dekker, 2001. ISBN 0-8247-0677-3.

Horton William F.; Saul Goldberg, Power Frequency Magnetic Fields and Public
Health, CRC Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8493-9420-1.
Mae-Wan, Ho; et al., Bioelectrodynamics and Biocommunication, World
Scientific, 1994. ISBN 981-02-1665-3.
Malmivuo, Jaakko; Robert Plonsey, Bioelectromagnetism: Principles and
Applications of Bioelectric and Biomagnetic Fields, Oxford University Press,
1995. ISBN 0-19-505823-2.
O'Connor, Mary E. (Editor), et al., Emerging Electromagnetic Medicine,
Springer, 1990. ISBN 0-387-97224-2.

Journals
Bioelectromagnetics, Wiley, 1985present, (ISSN 0197-8462)
Bioelectrochemistry, Elsevier, 1974present, (ISSN 1567-5394)
International Journal of Bioelectromagnetism, ISBEM, 1999present, (ISSN
1456-7865)
BioMagnetic Research and Technology archive (no longer publishing)
Biophysics, English version of the Russian "Biofizika" (ISSN 0006-3509)
Radiatsionnaya Bioliogiya Radioecologia ("Radiation Biology and Radioecology",
in Russian) (ISSN:0869-8031)

External links
A brief history of Bioelectromagnetism, by Jaakko and Plonsey.
Direct and Inverse Bioelectric Field Problems
Human body meshes for MATLAB, Ansoft/ANSYS HFSS, Octave (surface
meshes from real subjects, meshes for Visible Human Project)

Magnetobiology
Magnetobiology is the study of biological effects of mainly weak static and lowfrequency magnetic fields, which do not cause heating of tissues.
Magnetobiological effects have unique features that obviously distinguish them
from thermal effects; often they are observed for alternating magnetic fields just
in separate frequency and amplitude intervals. Also, they are dependent of
simultaneously present static magnetic or electric fields and their polarization.
Magnetobiology is a subset of bioelectromagnetics. Bioelectromagnetism and
biomagnetism are the study of the production of electromagnetic and magnetic
fields by biological organisms. The sensing of magnetic fields by organisms is
known as magnetoreception.

Biological effects of weak low frequency magnetic fields, less than about 0.1
millitesla (or 1 Gauss) and 100 Hz correspondingly, constitutes a physics
problem. The effects look paradoxical, for the energy quantum of these
electromagnetic fields is by many orders of value less than the energy scale of an
elementary chemical act. On the other hand, the field intensity is not enough to
cause any appreciable heating of biological tissues or irritate nerves by the
induced electric currents.
An example of magnetobiological effects is the magnetic navigation by migrant
animals. It is established that some animals are able to detect small variations of
the geomagnetic field on the order of tens of nanoteslas to find their seasonal
habitats.

Reproducibility
The results of magnetobiological experiments are poorly reproducible. 1020% of
publications report failed attempts to observe magnetobiological effects. In the
majority of experiments, success depended on a rare happy coincidence of
suitable electromagnetic and physiological conditions. Many of the experiments
await confirmation by independent studies.

Safety standards
Practical significance of magnetobiology is conditioned by the growing level of
the background electromagnetic exposure of people. Some electromagnetic
fields at chronic exposures may pose a threat to human health. World Health
Organization considers enhanced level of electromagnetic exposure at working
places as a stress factor. Present electromagnetic safety standards, worked out
by many national and international institutions, differ by tens and hundreds of
times for certain EMF ranges; this situation reflects the lack of research in the
area of magnetobiology and electromagnetobiology. Today, the most of the
standards take into account biological effects just from heating by
electromagnetic fields, and peripheral nerve stimulation from induced currents.

Medical approach
Practitioners of magnet therapy attempt to treat pain or other medical conditions
by relatively weak electromagnetic fields. These methods have not yet received
clinical evidence in accordance with accepted standards of evidence-based
medicine. Some institutions recognize the practice as a pseudoscientific one.
Other institutions, such as NASA, use magnet technology for biological
regenerative effects of bone in mammals.

Possible causes of the effects

In magnetobiology, theory is lagging far behind experiment. The nature of
biological effects of weak electromagnetic fields remains unclear as yet, despite
numerous experimental data. The following suggested causes of
magnetobiological phenomena are frequently discussed:
1. Crystallization of iron-bearing magnetic nanoparticles in tissues of the
organism,
2. Dependence of some biochemical free-radical reactions on the magnetic field
magnitude,
3. Possible existence of long-lived rotational states of some molecules inside
protein structures,
4. Magnetically induced changes in physical/chemical properties of liquid
water.
Explanation of the physical nature of biological effects of weak magnetic fields is
a fundamental scientific problem.

Profile scientific journals

Bioelectromagnetics
Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine
Biomedical Radioelectronics
Biophysics

Further reading
Presman A.S. Electromagnetic Fields and Life, Plenum, New York, 1970.
Kirschvink J.L., Jones D.S., MacFadden B.J. (Eds.) Magnetite Biomineralization
and Magnetoreception in Organisms. A New Biomagnetism, Plenum, New York,
1985.
Binhi V.N. Magnetobiology: Underlying Physical Problems. Academic Press,
San Diego, 2002. 473 p. ISBN 0-12-100071-0
Binhi V.N., Savin A.V. Effects of weak magnetic fields on biological systems:
Physical aspects. Physics Uspekhi, V.46(3), Pp.259291, 2003.

Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science using methods of, and theories from,
physics to study biological systems.4 Biophysics spans all levels of biological
organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems.
Biophysical research shares significant overlap with biochemistry,
nanotechnology, bioengineering, agrophysics, and systems biology. It has been
suggested as a bridge between biology and physics.

Overview
Molecular biophysics typically addresses biological questions similar to those in
biochemistry and molecular biology, but more quantitatively. Scientists in this
field conduct research concerned with understanding the interactions between
the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between DNA, RNA and
protein biosynthesis, as well as how these interactions are regulated. A great
variety of techniques is used to answer these questions.
Fluorescent imaging techniques, as well as electron microscopy, x-ray
crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are
often used to visualize structures of biological significance. Conformational
change in structure can be measured using techniques such as dual polarisation
interferometry and circular dichroism. Direct manipulation of molecules using
optical tweezers or AFM can also be used to monitor biological events where
forces and distances are at the nanoscale. Molecular biophysicists often consider
complex biological events as systems of interacting units which can be
understood through statistical mechanics, thermodynamics and chemical
kinetics. By drawing knowledge and experimental techniques from a wide variety
of disciplines, biophysicists are often able to directly observe, model or even
manipulate the structures and interactions of individual molecules or complexes
of molecules.
In addition to traditional (i.e. molecular and cellular) biophysical topics like
structural biology or enzyme kinetics, modern biophysics encompasses an
extraordinarily broad range of research, from bioelectronics to quantum biology
involving both experimental and theoretical tools. It is becoming increasingly
common for biophysicists to apply the models and experimental techniques
derived from physics, as well as mathematics and statistics (see
biomathematics), to larger systems such as tissues, organs (e.g. see
cardiophysics), populations and ecosystems. Biophysics is now used extensively
in the study of electrical conduction in single neurons, as well as neural circuit
analysis in both tissue and whole brain.

4Careers in Biophysics brochure, Biophysical Society

Focus as a subfield
Generally, biophysics does not have university-level departments of its own, but
has presence as groups across departments within the fields of molecular
biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, medicine,
pharmacology, physiology, physics, and neuroscience. What follows is a list of
examples of how each department applies its efforts toward the study of
biophysics. This list is hardly all inclusive. Nor does each subject of study belong
exclusively to any particular department. Each academic institution makes its
own rules and there is much overlap between departments.
Biology and molecular biology - Almost all forms of biophysics efforts are
included in some biology department somewhere. To include some: gene
regulation, single protein dynamics, bioenergetics, patch clamping,
biomechanics.
Structural biology - ngstrom-resolution structures of proteins, nucleic acids,
lipids, carbohydrates, and complexes thereof.
Biochemistry and chemistry - biomolecular structure, siRNA, nucleic acid
structure, structure-activity relationships.
Computer science - Neural networks, biomolecular and drug databases.
Computational chemistry - molecular dynamics simulation, molecular docking,
quantum chemistry
Bioinformatics - sequence alignment, structural alignment, protein structure
prediction
Mathematics - graph/network theory, population modeling, dynamical systems,
phylogenetics.
Medicine and neuroscience - tackling neural networks experimentally (brain
slicing) as well as theoretically (computer models), membrane permitivity, gene
therapy, understanding tumors.
Pharmacology and physiology - channelomics, biomolecular interactions,
cellular membranes, polyketides.
Physics - negentropy, stochastic processes, covering dynamics.
Quantum biophysics involves quantum information processing of coherent
states, entanglement between coherent protons and transcriptase components,
and replication of decohered isomers to yield time-dependent base substitutions.
These studies imply applications in quantum computing.
Agronomy and agriculture
Many biophysical techniques are unique to this field. Research efforts in
biophysics are often initiated by scientists who were traditional physicists,
chemists, and biologists by training.

Notes
Perutz MF (1962). Proteins and Nucleic Acids: Structure and Function.
Amsterdam: Elsevier. ASIN B000TS8P4G.
Perutz MF (1969). "The haemoglobin molecule". Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London. Series B 173 (31): 11340. Bibcode: 1969RSPSB.173..113P.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.1969.0043. PMID 4389425.
Dogonadze RR, Urushadze ZD (1971). "Semi-Classical Method of Calculation of
Rates of Chemical Reactions Proceeding in Polar Liquids". J Electroanal Chem 32
(2): 235245. doi: 10.1016/S0022-0728(71)80189-4.
Volkenshtein M.V., Dogonadze R.R., Madumarov A.K., Urushadze Z.D. and
Kharkats Yu.I. Theory of Enzyme Catalysis.- Molekuliarnaya Biologia (Moscow),
6, 1972, pp. 431439 (In Russian, English summary. Available translations in
Italian, Spanish, English, French)
Rodney M. J. Cotterill (2002). Biophysics : An Introduction. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471-48538-4.
Sneppen K, Zocchi G (2005-10-17). Physics in Molecular Biology (1 ed.).
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-84419-3.
Glaser, Roland (2004-11-23). Biophysics: An Introduction (Corrected ed.).
Springer. ISBN 3-540-67088-2.
Hobbie RK, Roth BJ (2006). Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology (4th
ed.). Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-30942-2.
Cooper WG (2009). "Evidence for transcriptase quantum processing implies
entanglement and decoherence of superposition proton states". BioSystems 97
(2): 7389. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2009.04.010. PMID 19427355.
Cooper WG (2009). "Necessity of quantum coherence to account for the
spectrum of time-dependent mutations exhibited by bacteriophage T4". Biochem.
Genet. 47 (1112): 892910. doi: 10.1007/s10528-009-9293-8. PMID 19882244.
Goldfarb, Daniel (2010). Biophysics Demystified. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07163365-0.

External links
Biophysical Society
Journal of Physiology: 2012 virtual issue Biophysics and Beyond
bio-physics-wiki
Link archive of learning resources for students: biophysika.de (60% English,
40% German)

Electrical brain stimulation

Electrical brain stimulation (EBS), also referred to as focal brain
stimulation (FBS), is a form of electrotherapy and technique used in research
and clinical neurobiology to stimulate a neuron or neural network in the brain
through the direct or indirect excitation of its cell membrane by using an electric
current. It is used for research or for therapeutical purposes.

History
Electrical brain stimulation was first used in the first half of the 19th century by
pioneering researchers such as Luigi Rolando [citation needed](17731831) and Pierre
Flourens [citation needed](17941867), to study the brain localization of function,
following the discovery by Italian physician Luigi Galvani (17371798) that
nerves and muscles were electrically excitable. The stimulation of the surface of
the cerebral cortex by using brain stimulation was used to investigate the motor
cortex in animals by researchers such as Eduard Hitzig (18381907), Gustav
Fritsch (18381927), David Ferrier (18421928) and Friedrich Goltz (1834
1902). The human cortex was also stimulated electrically by neurosurgeons and
neurologists such as Robert Bartholow (18311904) and Fedor Krause (1857
1937).
In the following century, the technique was improved by the invention of the
stereotactic method by British neurosurgeon pioneer Victor Horsley (1857
1916), and by the development of chronic electrode implants by Swiss
neurophysiologist Walter Rudolf Hess (18811973), Jos Delgado (1915-2011)
and others, by using electrodes manufactured by straight insulated wire that
could be inserted deep into the brain of freely-behaving animals, such as cats
and monkeys. This approach was used by James Olds (19221976) and
colleagues to discover brain stimulation reward and the pleasure center.
American-Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (18911976) and colleagues at
the Montreal Neurological Institute used extensively electrical stimulation of the
brain cortex in awake neurosurgical patients to investigate the motor and
sensory homunculus (the representation of the body in the brain cortex
according to the distribution of motor and sensory territories).

Process
Two-photon excitation microscopy has shown that microstimulation activates
neurons sparsely around the electrode even at low currents (as low as 10 A) up
to distances as far as four millimeters away. This happens without particularly
selecting other neurons much nearer the electrode's tip. This is due to activation
of neurons being determined by whether they do or do not have axons or
dendrites that pass within a radius of 15 m near the tip of the electrode. As the
current is increased the volume around the tip that activates neuron axons and
dendrites increases and with this the number of neurons activated. Activation is
most likely to be due to direct depolarization rather than synaptic activation.

Therapeutic applications
Examples of therapeutic EBS are:
Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES)
Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Functional electrical stimulation (FES)
Magnetic seizure therapy (MST)
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)
Strong electric currents may cause a localized lesion in the nervous tissue,
instead of a functional reversible stimulation. This property has been used for
neurosurgical procedures in a variety of treatments, such as for Parkinson's
disease, focal epilepsy and psychosurgery. Sometimes the same electrode is used
to probe the brain for finding defective functions, before passing the lesioning
current (electrocoagulation).

Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Intervention
ICD-10-PCS

GZB

ICD-9-CM

94.27

MeSH

D004565

OPS-301 code:

8-630

MedlinePlus

007474

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock, is a

standard psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in
anesthetized patients for symptom remission. Its mode of action is unknown. The
use of electroconvulsive therapy evolved out of convulsive therapy. Long before
electric shocks were being administered to induce seizures, doctors were using
other drugs and methods to induce seizures as a means of treatment for severe
depression and schizophrenia. Today, ECT is used as a treatment for clinical
depression that has not responded to other treatment, and sometimes for mania
and catatonia. It was first introduced in 1938 by Italian neuropsychiatrists Ugo
Cerletti and Lucio Bini, and gained widespread popularity as a form of treatment
in the 1940s and 1950s.5
In popular culture, it is usually depicted as a painful procedure, but in western
countries ECT is usually administered under anesthetic with a muscle relaxant.6
Electroconvulsive therapy can differ in its application in three ways: electrode
placement, frequency of treatments, and the electrical waveform of the stimulus.
These three forms of application have significant differences in both adverse side
effects and symptom remission. After treatment, drug therapy is usually
continued, and some patients receive maintenance ECT. In the United Kingdom
and Ireland, drug therapy usually is continued during ECT.
About 70 percent of ECT patients are women, since they are at twice the risk of
depression than are men.7 Although a large amount of research has been carried
out, the exact mechanism of action of ECT remains elusive, and ECT on its own
does not usually have a sustained benefit. There is usually a risk of memory loss
with ECT. It is deemed by the World Health Organization, that obtaining the
written, informed consent of the patient is necessary before ECT is
administered.8 In the United Kingdom, around a third of patients who are
receiving ECT haven't consented to it. They are deemed by the legal system as
being too mentally ill to provide consent and ECT is still provided since the legal
system feels it's in their best self-interest.9 Likewise is the case when ECT is
often administered on adolescents.10 Psychiatrists and other mental health
professionals differ on when and if ECT should be used as a first-line treatment
or if it should be reserved for patients who have not responded to other
interventions such as medication and psychotherapy. ECT is considered one of
the least harmful treatment options available for severely depressed pregnant
women.11

5Psychology Frontiers and Applications Second Canadian Edition (Passer, Smith, Atkinson,
Mitchell, Muir)
6http://psychcentral.com/lib/5-outdated-beliefs-about-ect/00011255
7http://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/articles/depression
8World Health Organisation (2005). WHO Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and
Legislation. Geneva, 64.
9http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23414888
10http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/12/1/17
11http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=77626

History
As early as the 16th century, agents to induce seizures were used to treat
psychiatric conditions. In 1785, the therapeutic use of seizure induction was
documented in the London Medical Journal. Convulsive therapy was introduced
in 1934 by Hungarian neuropsychiatrist Ladislas J. Meduna who, believing
mistakenly that schizophrenia and epilepsy were antagonistic disorders, induced
seizures first with camphor and then metrazol (cardiazol). Ladislas Meduna is
thought to be the father of convulsive therapy. In 1937, the first international
meeting on convulsive therapy was held in Switzerland by the Swiss psychiatrist
Muller. The proceedings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry
and, within three years, cardiazol convulsive therapy was being used worldwide.
Italian Professor of neuropsychiatry Ugo Cerletti, who had been using electric
shocks to produce seizures in animal experiments, and his colleague Lucio Bini
developed the idea of using electricity as a substitute for metrazol in convulsive
therapy and, in 1937, experimented for the first time on a person. It was known
early on that inducing convulsions aided in helping those with severe
schizophrenia. Cerletti had noted a shock to the head produced convulsions in
dogs. The idea to use electroshock on humans came to Cerletti when he saw how
pigs were given an electric shock before being butchered to put them in an
anesthetized state. Cerletti and Bini practiced until they felt they had the right
parameters needed to have a successful human trial. Once they started trials on
patients they found that after 10-20 treatments the results were significant.
Patients had much improved. A positive side effect to the treatment was
retrograde amnesia. It was because of this side effect that patients could not
remember the treatments and had no ill feelings toward it. ECT soon replaced
metrazol therapy all over the world because it was cheaper, less frightening and
more convenient.12 Cerletti and Bini were nominated for a Nobel Prize but did
not receive one. By 1940, the procedure was introduced to both England and the
US. In Germany and Austria it was promoted by Friedrich Meggendorfer.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, the use of ECT became widespread.

12Cerletti, U (1956). "Electroshock therapy". In AM Sackler et al. (eds) The Great Physiodynamic
Therapies in Psychiatry: an historical appraisal. New York: Hoeber-Harper, 91120.

In the early 1940s, in an attempt to reduce the memory disturbance and

confusion associated with treatment, two modifications were introduced: the use
of unilateral electrode placement and the replacement of sinusoidal current with
brief pulse. It took many years for brief-pulse equipment to be widely adopted. 13
In the 1940s and early 1950s ECT was usually given in "unmodified" form,
without muscle relaxants, and the seizure resulted in a full-scale convulsion. A
rare but serious complication of unmodified ECT was fracture or dislocation of
the long bones. In the 1940s psychiatrists began to experiment with curare, the
muscle-paralysing South American poison, in order to modify the convulsions.
The introduction of suxamethonium (succinylcholine), a safer synthetic
alternative to curare, in 1951 led to the more widespread use of "modified" ECT.
A short-acting anesthetic was usually given in addition to the muscle relaxant in
order to spare patients the terrifying feeling of suffocation that can be
experienced with muscle relaxants.
The steady growth of antidepressant use along with negative depictions of ECT
in the mass media led to a marked decline in the use of ECT during the 1950s to
the 1970s. The Surgeon General stated there were problems with electroshock
therapy in the initial years before anesthesia was routinely given, and that "these
now-antiquated practices contributed to the negative portrayal of ECT in the
popular media." The New York Times described the public's negative perception
of ECT as being caused mainly by one movie. "For Big Nurse in One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest, it was a tool of terror, and, in the public mind, shock therapy
has retained the tarnished image given it by Ken Kesey's novel: dangerous,
inhumane and overused".
In 1976, Dr. Blatchley demonstrated the effectiveness of his constant current,
brief pulse device ECT. This device eventually largely replaced earlier devices
because of the reduction in cognitive side effects, although as of 2012 some ECT
clinics still were using sine-wave devices.14 The 1970s saw the publication of the
first American Psychiatric Association (APA) task force report on
electroconvulsive therapy (to be followed by further reports in 1990 and 2001).
The report endorsed the use of ECT in the treatment of depression. The decade
also saw criticism of ECT.15 Specifically critics pointed to shortcomings such as
noted side effects, the procedure being used as a form of abuse, and uneven
application of ECT. The use of ECT declined until the 1980s, "when use began to
increase amid growing awareness of its benefits and cost-effectiveness for
treating severe depression". In 1985 the National Institute of Mental Health and
National Institutes of Health convened a consensus development conference on
ECT and concluded that, while ECT was the most controversial treatment in
psychiatry and had significant side-effects, it had been shown to be effective for a
narrow range of severe psychiatric disorders.
13Kiloh, LG, Smith, JS, Johnson, GF (1988). Physical Treatments in Psychiatry. Melbourne:
Blackwell Scientific Publications, 190208. ISBN 0-86793-112-4
14Leiknes KA, et al (2012) Contemporary use and practice of electroconvulsive therapy
worldwide. Brain Behav. 2(3):283-344
15See Friedberg, J (1977). "Shock treatment, brain damage, and memory loss: a neurological
perspective". American Journal of Psychiatry 134:10101014; and Breggin, PR (1979)
Electroshock: its brain-disabling effects. New York: Springer

Due to the backlash noted previously, national institutions reviewed past

practices and set new standards. In 1978, The American Psychiatric Association
released its first task force report in which new standards for consent were
introduced and the use of unilateral electrode placement was recommended. The
1985 NIMH Consensus Conference confirmed the therapeutic role of ECT in
certain circumstances. The American Psychiatric Association released its second
task force report in 1990 where specific details on the delivery, education, and
training of ECT were documented. Finally in 2001 the American Psychiatric
Association released its latest task force report. This report emphasizes the
importance of informed consent, and the expanded role that the procedure has in
modern medicine.

Mechanism of action
Despite decades of research, the exact mechanism of action of ECT remains
elusive. Ladislas J. Meduna believed that chemically induced seizures, brought
on by drugs, could change the chemical makeup of the brain of a patient with
schizophrenia. Modern electroconvulsive therapy operates under a similar
hypothesis, though in modern practice a therapeutic clonic seizure is induced by
electrical current via electrodes placed on an anesthetized, unconscious patient.
It is known that the central nervous system is regulated by small electrical
current; disrupting or "restarting" that current by induced seizure (colloquially,
"jumpstarting the brain"), has shown positive effects in patients with severe
depression or schizophrenia.
Peter Breggin, an outspoken and controversial critic of evidence-based
psychiatry, claims that ECT induces "a closed-head injury caused by an
overwhelming current of electricity sufficient to cause a grand mal seizure" and
that the improvements in mood seen in patients receiving ECT are resultant from
brain damage.16 Such claims are rejected as wholly unsubstantiated by the
consensus of the scientific and medical community.
There is a vast body of literature on the effects of ECT in animals; however,
though human and animal brains are very similar, animal models of depression
are widely acknowledged to parallel only limited aspects of depressive illness, a
uniquely human disease. Some suggest pruning of normally dense synaptic
connections in the hippocampus, a richly connected area deep in the temporal
lobe vital in controlling both mood and memory, seen in animal studies may play
a role in its effectiveness.

16Dr. Peter Breggin for Huffington Post. February 9, 2008. Brain-Disabling Treatments in
Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex

Selection of patients for ECT

Experts disagree on whether ECT is an appropriate first-line treatment or if it
should be reserved for patients who have not responded to other interventions
such as medication and psychotherapy.
The American Psychiatric Association 2001 guidelines give the primary
indications for ECT among patients with depression as a lack of response to, or
intolerance of, antidepressant medications; a good response to previous ECT;
and the need for a rapid and definitive response (e.g. because of psychosis or a
risk of suicide). The decision to use ECT depends on several factors, including
the severity and chronicity of the depression, the likelihood that alternative
treatments would be effective, the patient's preference and capacity to consent,
and a weighing of the risks and benefits.17
Some guidelinesWikipedia:Avoid weasel words recommend cognitive behavioral
therapy or other psychotherapy before ECT is used. However, treatment
resistance is widely defined as lack of therapeutic response to two
antidepressants at adequate doses for an adequate duration and with good
compliance. The APA states that at times patients will prefer to receive ECT over
alternative treatments, but commonly the opposite will be the case.
The APA ECT guidelines state that severe major depression with psychotic
features, manic delirium, or catatonia are conditions where there is a clear
consensus favoring early ECT. The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence 2003 (NICE) guidelines recommended ECT for patients with severe
depression, catatonia, or prolonged or severe mania. It did not recommend the
use of ECT as a maintenance therapy in depressive illness as "the long-term
benefits and risks ... had not been clearly established":56 and those
recommendations were unchanged in the 2010 update.:526 The 2001 APA
guidelines support the use of ECT for relapse prevention.
The 2001 APA ECT guidelines say that ECT is rarely used as a first-line treatment
for schizophrenia, but is considered after unsuccessful treatment with
antipsychotic medication, and may also be considered in the treatment of
patients with schizoaffective or schizophreniform disorder. The 2003 NICE ECT
guidelines do not recommend ECT for schizophrenia, and this has been
supported by meta-analytic evidence showing no or little benefit versus placebo,
or in combination with antipsychotic drugs, including Clozapine.
The NICE 2003 guidelines state that doctors should be particularly cautious
when considering ECT treatment for women who are pregnant and for older or
younger people, because they may be at higher risk of complications with ECT.
The 2001 APA ECT guidelines say that ECT may be safer than alternative
treatments in the infirm elderly and during pregnancy, and the 2000 APA
depression guidelines stated that the literature supports the safety for mother
and fetus, as well as the efficacy during pregnancy.
17Lisanby, S.H. (2007) Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression Volume 357, No. 19, pp. 1939
1945

ECT has been used in selected cases of depression occurring in the setting of
multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea, developmental
delay, brain arteriovenous malformations and hydrocephalus.

Efficacy
Non-clinical patient characteristics
About 70 percent of ECT patients are women. This is almost entirely due to
women being at twice the risk of depression. Older and more affluent patients
are also more likely to receive ECT. The use of ECT is not as common in ethnic
minorities.

Degree of effectiveness and risks

Scientific papers and articles reviewing studies of ECT effectiveness have
reached conflicting conclusions.
A meta-analysis done on the effectiveness of ECT in unipolar and bipolar
depression was conducted in 2012. Findings showed that although patients with
unipolar depression and bipolar depression responded very differently to other
medical treatments both groups responded equally as well to ECT. Overall
remission rate for patients with unipolar depression was 51.5% and 50.9% in
those with bipolar depression. The severity of each patients depression was
assessed at the same baseline in each group.
In 2003, The UK ECT Review group published a systematic review and metaanalysis comparing ECT to placebo and antidepressant drugs. This meta-analysis
demonstrated a large effect size (high efficacy relative to the mean in terms of
the standard deviation) for ECT versus placebo, and versus antidepressant
drugs.
In 2006, a research article by Dr. Colin A. Ross found that no studies had ever
shown that ECT was more effective than a placebo (sham ECT) treatment as of 1
month posttreatment.
In 2008, a meta-analytic review paper found in terms of efficacy, "a significant
superiority of ECT in all comparisons: ECT versus simulated ECT, ECT versus
placebo, ECT versus antidepressants in general, ECT versus TCAs and ECT
versus MAOIs."
In 2010, a paper by Dr. John Reed and Dr. Richard Bentall found that ECT was
only minimally more effective than a placebo during the treatment period, and
that there was no difference in effect after the treatment period. In light of this
finding, and the risk of side-effects, the authors concluded that the use of ECT
"cannot be scientifically justified".

A 2011 paper in the Journal of Psychiatric Nurses Association reported that ECT
was effective.18
Surveys of public opinion, the testimony of former patients, legal restrictions on
its use and disputes as to the efficacy, ethics and adverse effects of ECT within
the psychiatric and wider medical community indicate that the use of ECT
remains controversial. This is reflected in the recent vote by the United States
Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Neurological Devices Advisory Panel to
recommend that FDA maintain ECT devices in the Class III device category for
high risk devices except for patients suffering from catatonia. This may result in
the manufacturers of such devices having to do controlled trials on their safety
and efficacy for the first time.19 In justifying their position, panelists referred to
the memory loss associated with ECT and the lack of long-term data.

Duration of effect
ECT on its own does not usually have a sustained benefit. Half those who remit
then relapse within six months. This is similar to the rate of relapse after
discontinuing antidepressant medication, and it has been suggested that it is due
to the severity and chronicity of pre-existing illness for which ECT is generally
used.20 The relapse rate in the first six months is reduced by the use of
psychiatric medications or further ECT, but remains high.

Probability of remission
The 1999 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health summarized
psychiatric opinion at the time about the effectiveness of ECT. It stated that both
clinical experience and published studies had determined ECT to be effective
(with an average 60 to 70 percent remission rate) in the treatment of severe
depression, some acute psychotic states, and mania. Its effectiveness had not
been demonstrated in dysthymia, substance abuse, anxiety, or personality
disorder. The report stated that ECT does not have a long-term protective effect
against suicide and should be regarded as a short-term treatment for an acute
episode of illness, to be followed by continuation therapy in the form of drug
treatment or further ECT at weekly to monthly intervals.21

18http://jap.sagepub.com/content/17/3/217.short
19Duff Wilson for the New York Times. January 28, 2011 F.D.A. Panel Is Split on Electroshock
Risks
20Sackeim HA, Haskett RF, Mulsant BH, Thase ME, Mann JJ, Pettinati HM, Greenberg RM,
Crowe RR, Cooper TB, Prudic J.(2001) Continuation pharmacotherapy in the prevention of
relapse following electroconvulsive therapy: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2001 Mar 14;
285(10):1299307.
21Surgeon General (1999). Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, chapter 4.

A 2004 large multicentre clinical follow-up study of ECT patients in New York
describing itself as the first systematic documentation of the effectiveness of ECT
in community practice in the 65 years of its use found remission rates of only
30 to 47 percent, with 64 percent of those relapsing within six months. However,
when patients with co-morbid personality disorders or who were suffering from
schizoaffective disorder were removed from the analysis, the remission rates
climbed to 60-70%.

Related experimental therapeutics

Recent research has investigated whether implantable devices such as those
used in DBS (deep brain stimulation) could result in clinical improvements for
patients with treatment-resistant depression. However, in North America, DBS
has not been authorized as an approved, effective therapy for treatment-resistant
depression.

Adverse effects
Aside from effects in the brain, the general physical risks of ECT are similar to
those of brief general anesthesia; the U.S. Surgeon General's report says that
there are "no absolute health contraindications" to its use.:259 Immediately
following treatment, the most common adverse effects are confusion and
memory loss. The state of confusion usually disappears after a few hours. It can
be tolerated by pregnant women who are not suffering major complications. It
can be used with diabetic or obese patients, and with caution in those whose
cancers are in remission or under control. It can be used in some
immunocompromised patients. It must be used very cautiously in people with
epilepsy or other neurological disorders because by its nature it provokes small
tonic-clonic seizures, and so would likely not be given to a person whose epilepsy
is not well controlled. Some patients experience muscle soreness after ECT. This
is due to the muscle relaxants given during the procedure and rarely due to
muscle activity. ECT, especially if combined with deep sleep therapy, may lead to
brain damage if administered in such a way as to lead to hypoxia or anoxia in the
patient.22 The death rate due to ECT is around 4 per 100,000 procedures.23 There
is evidence and rationale to support giving low doses of benzodiazepines or else
low doses of general anesthetics which induce sedation but not anesthesia to
patients to reduce adverse effects of ECT.

22E. Wilson 2003 Psychiatric abuse at Chelmsford Private Hospital, New South Wales, 19601980s. In C. Coleborne and D. MacKinnon Madness in Australia: histories, heritage and the
asylum. Queensland: 121-34
23Gelder, M., Mayou, R., Geddes, J. (2006) Psychiatry. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University
Press

Effects on memory
It is the purported effects of ECT on long-term memory that give rise to much of
the concern surrounding its use. The acute effects of ECT can include amnesia,
both retrograde (for events occurring before the treatment) and anterograde (for
events occurring after the treatment).24 Memory loss and confusion are more
pronounced with bilateral electrode placement rather than unilateral, and with
outdated sine-wave rather than brief-pulse currents. The use of either constant
or pulsing electrical impulses also varied the memory loss results in patients.
Patients who received pulsing electrical impulses as opposed to a steady flow
seemed to incur less memory loss. A 2007 study on the long term effects of ECT
showed that global cognitive impairment followed all forms of ECT in varying
extent. The vast majority of modern treatment uses brief pulse currents.
Research by Harold Sackeim has shown that excessive current causes more risk
for memory loss, and using right-sided electrode placement may reduce verbal
memory disturbance. It was his '07 study that also showed global cognitive
impairment in all forms of ECT, including the most benign[citation needed].
Retrograde amnesia is most marked for events occurring in the weeks or months
before treatment, with one study showing that although some people lose
memories from years prior to treatment, recovery of such memories was
"virtually complete" by seven months post-treatment, with the only enduring loss
being memories in the weeks and months prior to the treatment. Anterograde
memory loss is usually limited to the time of treatment itself or shortly
afterwards. In the weeks and months following ECT these memory problems
gradually improve, but some people have persistent losses, especially with
bilateral ECT. One published review summarizing the results of questionnaires
about subjective memory loss found that between 29% and 55% of respondents
believed they experienced long-lasting or permanent memory changes. In 2000,
American psychiatrist Sarah Lisanby and colleagues found that bilateral ECT left
patients with more persistently impaired memory of public events as compared
to RUL ECT.
Some studies have found that patients are often unaware of cognitive deficits
induced by ECT. For example, in June 2008, a Duke University study was
published assessing the neuropsychological effects and attitudes in patients after
ECT. Forty-six patients participated in the study, which involved
neuropsychological and psychological testing before and after ECT. The study
documented substantial cognitive impairment after ECT on a variety of memory
tests, including "verbal memory for word lists and prose passages and visual
memory of geometric designs." Based on their findings, the authors issued the
following recommendation:

24Benbow, SM (2004) "Adverse effects of ECT". In AIF Scott (ed.) The ECT Handbook, second
edition. London: The Royal College of Psychiatrists, pp. 170174.

When ECT is provided to adolescents, the potential impact of such cognitive

changes should be discussed with the patients and their parents or guardians
in terms of implications for not only the patient's emotional functioning but
cognitive functioning as well, particularly upon his or her academic
performance. In summary, we argue that an individual cost-benefit analysis
should be made in light of the implications of the potential benefits versus
costs of ECT upon improving emotional functioning and the impact that
potential memory changes may have on real-world functioning and quality of
life.
Severe memory loss from ECT is described in an autobiographical book, Doctors
of Deception: What They Don't Want You to Know about Shock Treatment.

Controversy over long-term effects on general

cognition
According to prominent ECT researcher Harold Sackeim, "despite over fifty
years of clinical use and ongoing controversy", until 2007 there had "never been
a large-scale, prospective study of the cognitive effects of ECT." In this first-ever
large-scale study (347 subjects), Sackeim and colleagues found that at least
some forms (namely bilateral application and outdated sine-wave currents) of
ECT "routine[ly]" lead to "adverse cognitive effects," including global cognitive
deficits and memory loss, that persist for up to six months after treatment,
suggesting that the induced deficits may be permanent. The authors also warned
that their findings did not suggest that right-unilateral ECT did not also lead to
chronic cognitive deficits.
Harold Sackeim can be seen in a videotaped deposition briefly discussing the
findings of this study and why, in his opinion, earlier studies had failed to find
evidence of long-term harm from ECT. Despite over fifty years of clinical use,
Sackeim states that prior to 2001, "the field itself never really had an opportunity
to have a discussion about patients who have complaints about long-term
memory loss." In this video clip, Sackeim also reveals that at a California ECT
conference with 200 practitioners present, when polled as to whether they think
ECT can lead to chronic cognitive deficits, two-thirds raised their hands. Sackeim
says this was "almost a watershed moment for the field", and was the "first time
publicly that the field itself said 'no' to the position that it can't happen."

In July 2007, a second study was published concluding that ECT routinely leads
to chronic, substantial cognitive deficits, and the findings were not limited to any
particular forms of ECT. The study, led by psychiatrist Glenda MacQueen and
colleagues, found that patients treated with ECT for bipolar disorder show
marked deficits across multiple cognitive domains. According to the researchers,
"Subjects who had received remote ECT had further impairment on a variety of
learning and memory tests when compared with patients with no past ECT. This
degree of impairment could not be accounted for by illness state at the time of
assessment or by differential past illness burden between patient groups."
Despite the findings of chronic, global cognitive deficits in post-ECT patients,
MacQueen and colleagues suggest that it is "unlikely that such findings, even if
confirmed, would significantly change the riskbenefit ratio of this notably
effective treatment."
Six months after the publication of the Sackeim study documenting routine, longterm memory loss after ECT, prominent ECT researcher Max Fink published a
review in the journal Psychosomatics concluding that patient complaints of
memory loss after ECT are "rare" and should be "characterized as somatoform
disorders, rather than as evidence of brain damage, thus warranting
psychological treatment for such disorders." Based on his findings, Fink suggests
that, "Instead of endorsing these reports as the direct consequence of ECT,
especially in patients who have recovered from their depressive illness, lost their
suicidal drive, and have improved social functioning, is it not more useful to
accept the complaint as a somatoform disorder, explore the basis in the
individual's history and experience, and offer appropriate supportive treatment?"
A number of reviews of the literature and other articles continue to characterize
ECT as safe and effective. For example, in June 2009, Portuguese researchers
published a review on the safety and efficacy of ECT in an article entitled,
Electroconvulsive Therapy: Myths and Evidences. In their review, the
researchers conclude that ECT is an "efficient, safe and even life saving
treatment for several psychiatric disorders." In 2008, Yale researchers published
a review on the safety and efficacy of ECT in elderly patients. According to the
authors, "ECT is well established as a safe and effective treatment for several
psychiatric disorders." And in a June 2009 article published in the Journal of
ECT, Iranian researchers observe that, "Despite the wide consensus over the
safety and efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), it still faces negative
publicity and unfavorable attitudes of patients and families."

Breggin, chief editor of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, is
a leading critic of ECT who believes the procedure is neither safe nor effective.
In a published article reviewing the findings of Harold Sackeim's 2007 study on
the cognitive effects of ECT, Breggin accuses Max Fink and other pro-ECT
researchers of having a history of "systematically covering up damage done to
millions of [ECT] patients throughout the world." He disagrees with the position
that findings of chronic, global cognitive deficits should have no bearing on the
risk-benefit ratio of ECT, and he believes it's important to address the "actual
impact of these losses on the lives of individual patients." In his 2007 paper, a
section is entitled Destroying Lives, and in it, Breggin writes, "Even when these
injured people can continue to function on a superficial social basis, they
nonetheless suffer devastation of their identities due to the obliteration of key
aspects of their personal lives. The loss of the ability to retain and learn new
material is not only humiliating and depressing but also disabling. Even when
relatively subtle, these activities can disrupt routine activities of living."
A study published in 2004 in the Journal of Mental Health reported that 35 to
42% of patients responding to a questionnaire reported ECT resulted in loss of
intelligence.25 The study also reported, "There is no overlap between clinical and
consumer studies on the question of benefit."
Doctors of Deception: What They Don't Want You to Know About Shock
Treatment reports before-and-after IQ testing of persons receiving ECT,
including the author, that show 30 to 40 point losses.

Effects on brain structure

Considerable controversy exists over the effects of ECT on brain tissue, although
a number of mental health associations including the American Psychiatric
Association have concluded that there is no evidence that ECT causes
structural brain damage. A 1999 report by the U.S. Surgeon General states, "The
fears that ECT causes gross structural brain pathology have not been supported
by decades of methodologically sound research in both humans and animals".
However, not all experts agree that ECT does not cause brain damage, and two
studies have been published since 2007 finding that at least some forms of ECT
may result in widespread, persisting, generalized cognitive dysfunction, which
might support claims that ECT causes brain damage.

25Philpot M, Collins C, Trivedi P, Treloar A, Gallacher S, Rose D: Eliciting users' views of ECT in
two mental health trusts with a user-designed questionnaire. Journal of Mental Health 13(4):
403413, 2004

Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist, has published books and journal reviews of the
literature purporting to show that ECT routinely causes brain damage as
evidenced by a considerable list of studies in humans and animals. In particular,
Breggin asserts that animal and human autopsy studies have shown that ECT
routinely causes 'widespread pinpoint hemorrhages and scattered cell death.'
According to Breggin, the 1990 APA task force report on ECT ignored much of
the scientific literature pointing out the negative effects of electroshock therapy.
For example, in 1952 Hans Hartelius conducted and published an animal study
on cats entitled Cerebral Changes Following Electrically Induced Convulsions in
which a double-blind microscopic pathology examination showed that it was
possible to distinguish the 8 shocked animals from the 8 non-shocked animals
with remarkable accuracy based on statistically significant structural changes to
the brain, including vessel wall changes, gliosis, and nerve cell changes. Based
on the detection of shadow cells and neuronophagia, Hartelius determined that
there was irreversible damage to neurons associated with electroshock.
Proponents argue that the addition of hyperoxygenation and refinement in
technique in the last thirty years has made ECT safe, and a majority of published
reviews in recent decades have reflected this position. A 2004 study was
designed to evaluate whether modern ECT techniques lead to identifiable brain
damage, In the study: "Twelve adolescent Macaca mulatta, the initial subjects in
an ongoing study of the cognitive and anatomic effects of ECT and magnetic
seizure therapy, were divided into cohorts of three and matched for age, weight,
and sex. Each cohort was housed in a group. Within each cohort, the monkeys
were randomly assigned to ECT, magnetic seizure therapy, or sham. All staff not
involved in the delivery of the interventions were masked to group assignment.
This study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of
New York State Psychiatric Institute. Interventions were performed 4 days per
week for 6 weeks. A 5-week recovery period was interposed before the last
intervention week to permit maturation of possible neuropathological effects.
Animals were euthanized 3 days after the last intervention." Their brains were
compared to monkeys undergoing anesthesia alone. According to the
researchers, "None of the ECT-treated monkeys showed pathological findings."
Many expert proponents of ECT maintain that the procedure is safe and does not
cause brain damage. Dr. Charles Kellner, a prominent ECT researcher and
former chief editor of the Journal of ECT, stated in a 2007 interview that, "There
are a number of well-designed studies that show ECT does not cause brain
damage and numerous reports of patients who have received a large number of
treatments over their lifetime and have suffered no significant problems due to
ECT." Dr. Kellner cites a study purporting to show an absence of cognitive
impairment in eight subjects after more than 100 lifetime ECT treatments. Dr.
Kellner stated "Rather than cause brain damage, there is evidence that ECT may
reverse some of the damaging effects of serious psychiatric illness."

Effects in pregnancy
If steps are taken to decrease potential risks, ECT is generally accepted to be
relatively safe during all trimesters of pregnancy, particularly when compared to
pharmacological treatments. Suggested preparation for ECT during pregnancy
includes a pelvic examination, discontinuation of nonessential anticholinergic
medication, uterine tocodynamometry, intravenous hydration, and administration
of a nonparticulate antacid. During ECT, elevation of the pregnant woman's right
hip, external fetal cardiac monitoring, intubation, and avoidance of excessive
hyperventilation are recommended. Much of the medical literature in this area is
composed of case studies of single or twin pregnancies, and although some have
reported serious complications, the majority have found ECT to be safe.

Administration
ECT is selected as a therapy as described above, and normally requires the
informed consent of the patient.26:1880
Whether psychiatric medications are terminated prior to treatment or
maintained, varies.:188527 However, drugs that are known to cause toxicity in
combination with ECT, such as lithium, are discontinued, and benzodiazepines,
which increase seizure thresholds, are either discontinued, a benzodiazepine
antagonist is administered at each ECT session, or the ECT treatment is adjusted
accordingly.:1879:1875
The placement of electrodes, as well as the dose and duration of the stimulation
is determined on a per-patient basis.:1881
Both electrodes can be placed on the same side of the patient's head. This is
known as unilateral ECT. Unilateral ECT is used first to minimize side effects
(memory loss). When electrodes are placed on both sides of the head, this is
known as bilateral ECT. In bifrontal ECT, an uncommon variation, the electrode
position is somewhere between bilateral and unilateral. Unilateral is thought to
cause fewer cognitive effects than bilateral but is considered less effective if the
dose administered is close to the seizure threshold.:1881 In the USA most patients
receive bilateral ECT. In the UK almost all patients receive bilateral ECT.

26
27Haskett RF and Loo C (2010) Role of Adjunctive Psychotropic Medications during ECT in the
Treatment of Depression, Mania and Schizophrenia J ECT. 2010 September; 26(3): 19620

The electrodes deliver an electrical stimulus. The stimulus levels recommended

for ECT are in excess of an individual's seizure threshold: about one and a half
times seizure threshold for bilateral ECT and up to 12 times for unilateral
ECT.:1881 Below these levels treatment may not be effective in spite of a seizure,
while doses massively above threshold level, especially with bilateral ECT,
expose patients to the risk of more severe cognitive impairment without
additional therapeutic gains. Seizure threshold is determined by trial and error
("dose titration"). Some psychiatrists use dose titration, some still use "fixed
dose" (that is, all patients are given the same dose) and others compromise by
roughly estimating a patient's threshold according to age and sex. Older men
tend to have higher thresholds than younger women, but it is not a hard and fast
rule, and other factors, for example drugs, affect seizure threshold.
Immediately prior to treatment, a patient is given a short-acting anesthetic such
as methohexital, etomidate, or thiopental, a muscle relaxant such as
suxamethonium (succinylcholine), and occasionally atropine to inhibit salivation.
The patient's EEG, ECG, and blood oxygen levels are monitored during
treatment.:1882
ECT is usually administered three times a week, on alternate days, over a course
of two to four weeks.:18821883

ECT devices
Most modern ECT devices deliver a brief-pulse current, which is thought to
cause fewer cognitive effects than the sine-wave currents which were originally
used in ECT. A small minority of psychiatrists in the USA still use sine-wave
stimuli. Sine-wave is no longer used in the UK or Ireland. Typically, the electrical
stimulus used in ECT is about 800 milliamps and has up to several hundred
watts, and the current flows for between one and 6 seconds.28 In the USA, ECT
devices are manufactured by two companies, Somatics, which is owned by
psychiatrists Richard Abrams and Conrad Swartz, and Mecta. The Food and Drug
Administration has classified the devices used to administer ECT as Class III
medical devices.29 Class III is the highest-risk class of medical devices. In the UK,
the market for ECT devices was long monopolized by Ectron Ltd, although in
recent years some hospitals have started using American devices. Ectron Ltd was
set up by psychiatrist Robert Russell, who together with a colleague from the
Three Counties Asylum, Bedfordshire, invented the PageRussell technique of
intensive ECT.

28
29Federal Register (1979), p. 51776

Variations in international practice

There is wide variation in ECT use between different countries, different
hospitals, and different psychiatrists. International practice varies considerably
from widespread use of the therapy in many western countries to a small
minority of countries that do not use ECT at all, such as Slovenia.30 Guidelines on
the use of ECT are stringent in the USA and the UK. Modern standards are not
always followed throughout the world and not all countries that use ECT have
written technical standards. The use of both anesthesia and muscle relaxants is
universally recommended in the administration of ECT. If anesthesia and muscle
relaxants are not used the procedure is called unmodified ECT. In a minority of
countries such as Japan, India, and Nigeria, ECT may be used without
anesthesia. WHO has called for a worldwide ban on unmodified ECT and the
topic is currently being debated in countries like India. The practice has been
recently abolished in Turkey's largest psychiatric hospital. A major difficulty for
developing countries in eliminating unmodified ECT is a lack of trained
anesthesiologists available to administer the procedure. A small minority of
countries never seek consent before administering ECT. This significantly uneven
application of ECT around the world continues to make ECT a controversial
procedure.
Sarah Hall reports, "ECT has been dogged by conflict between psychiatrists who
swear by it, and some patients and families of patients who say that their lives
have been ruined by it. It is controversial in some European countries such as
the Netherlands and Italy, where its use is severely restricted".31

30See the Slovenian government website for information about ECT in Slovenia.
31Rise In Electric Shock Therapy In County. Sarah Hall, Norwich Evening News 24, June 4, 2008.
Accessed: June 4, 2008.

United States
ECT became popular in the United States in the 1940s. At this time psychiatric
hospitals were overrun with patients whom doctors were desperate to treat and
cure. The practices of ECT and lobotomies became popular because they held
some promise of addressing the overpopulation problem. Whereas lobotomies
would reduce a patient to a more manageable submissive state ECT helped to
improve mood in those with severe depression. In the United States, a survey of
psychiatric practice in the late 1980s found that an estimated 100,000 people
received ECT annually, with wide variation between metropolitan statistical
areas. Accurate statistics about the frequency, context and circumstances of ECT
in the United States are difficult to obtain because only a few states have
reporting laws that require the treating facility to supply state authorities with
this information. One state which does report such data is Texas, where in the
mid-1990s ECT was used in about one third of psychiatric facilities and given to
about 1,650 people annually. Usage of ECT has since declined slightly; in 2000
01 ECT was given to about 1500 people aged from 16 to 97 (in Texas it is illegal
to give ECT to anyone under sixteen).32 ECT is more commonly used in private
psychiatric hospitals than in public hospitals, and minority patients are
underrepresented in the ECT statistics. In the United States, ECT is usually
given three times a week; in the UK, it is usually given twice a week.
Occasionally it is given on a daily basis. A course usually consists of 612
treatments, but may be more or fewer. Following a course of ECT some patients
may be given continuation or maintenance ECT with further treatments at
weekly, fortnightly or monthly intervals. A few psychiatrists in the USA use
multiple-monitored ECT (MMECT) where patients receive more than one
treatment per anesthetic. Electroconvulsive therapy is not a required subject in
US medical schools and not a required skill in psychiatric residency training.
Privileging for ECT practice at institutions is a local option: no national
certification standards are established, and no ECT-specific continuing training
experiences are required of ECT practitioners.33

32Texas Department of State (2002) Electroconvulsive therapy reports.

33Fink, M. & Taylor, A.M. (2007) Electroconvulsive therapy: Evidence and Challenges JAMA Vol.
298 No. 3, p330332.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom in 1980, an estimated 50,000 people received ECT
annually, with use declining steadily since then to about 12,000 per annum in
2002. It is still used in nearly all psychiatric hospitals, with a survey of ECT use
from 2002 finding that 71 percent of patients were women and 46 percent were
over 65 years of age. Eighty-one percent had a diagnosis of mood disorder;
schizophrenia was the next most common diagnosis. Sixteen percent were
treated without their consent.34 In 2003, the National Institute for Clinical
Excellence, a government body which was set up to standardize treatment
throughout the National Health Service in England and Wales, issued guidance
on the use of ECT. Its use was recommended "only to achieve rapid and shortterm improvement of severe symptoms after an adequate trial of treatment
options has proven ineffective and/or when the condition is considered to be
potentially life-threatening in individuals with severe depressive illness,
catatonia or a prolonged manic episode".35
The guidance received a mixed reception. It was welcomed by an editorial in the
British Medical Journal but the Royal College of Psychiatrists launched an
unsuccessful appeal.36 The NICE guidance, as the British Medical Journal
editorial points out, is only a policy statement and psychiatrists may deviate from
it if they see fit. Adherence to standards has not been universal in the past. A
survey of ECT use in 1980 found that more than half of ECT clinics failed to meet
minimum standards set by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, with a later survey
in 1998 finding that minimum standards were largely adhered to, but that twothirds of clinics still fell short of current guidelines, particularly in the training
and supervision of junior doctors involved in the procedure. A voluntary
accreditation scheme, ECTAS, was set up in 2004 by the Royal College, but as of
2006 only a minority of ECT clinics in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland have signed up.37

India
The Union Health Ministry of India has decided in the Mental Health Care Bill of
2010 that they will no longer use direct ECT. The Health Ministry recommended
a ban on the whole procedure.38

Legal status

34
35NICE 2003. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
36NICE (2003). Appraisal of electroconvulsive therapy: decision of the appeal panel. London:
NICE.
37Royal College of Psychiatrists (2006). ECTAS newsletter issue 5.
38Electroshocks for mentally ill patients to be banned (2011). [0] Teena Thacker

Informed consent
It is widely acknowledged internationally that obtaining the written, informed
consent of the patient is important before ECT is administered. The World Health
Organization, in its 2005 publication "Human Rights and Legislation WHO
Resource Book on Mental Health," specifically states, "ECT should be
administered only after obtaining informed consent."
In the US, this doctrine places a legal obligation on a doctor to make a patient
aware of: the reason for treatment, the risks and benefits of a proposed
treatment, the risks and benefits of alternative treatment, and the risks and
benefits of receiving no treatment. The patient is then given the opportunity to
accept or reject the treatment. The form states how many treatments are
recommended and also makes the patient aware that the treatment may be
revoked at anytime during a course of ECT. The Surgeon General's Report on
Mental Health states that patients should be warned that the benefits of ECT are
short-lived without active continuation treatment in the form of drugs or further
ECT, and that there may be some risk of permanent, severe memory loss after
ECT. The report advises psychiatrists to involve patients in discussion, possibly
with the aid of leaflets or videos, both before and during a course of ECT.
To demonstrate what he believes should be required to fully satisfy the legal
obligation for informed consent, one psychiatrist, working for an anti-psychiatry
organisation, has formulated his own consent form using the consent form
developed and enacted by the Texas Legislature as a model.39
According to the Surgeon General, involuntary treatment is uncommon in the
United States and is typically used only in cases of great extremity, and only
when all other treatment options have been exhausted. The use of ECT is
believed to be a potentially life-saving treatment.40 However, caution must be
exercised in interpreting this assertion as, in an American context, there does
not appear to have been any attempt to survey at national level the usage of ECT
as either an elective or involuntary procedure in almost twenty years.41 In one of
the few jurisdictions where recent statistics on ECT usage are available, a
national audit of ECT by the Scottish ECT Accreditation Network indicated that
77% of patients who received the treatment in 2008 were capable of giving
informed consent.

39Texas Legislature (2004). Health & Safety Code Chapter 578, Electroconvulsive And Other
Therapies Sec.578.001.
40
41Data from a survey by the APA's Psychiatric Activities Survey 1988-89 indicated that at that
time somewhat less than 8% of U.S. psychiatrists provided ECT for their patients, although this
rate was highly variable. There was no data on the usage of involuntary ECT, however. . In regard
to the variability in the use of ECT by psychiatrists in the U.S. Carl Salzman suggests that this
may indicate a degree of professional ambivalence towards the procedure

In the UK, in order for consent to be valid it requires an explanation in "broad

terms" of the nature of the procedure and its likely effects.42 One review from
2005 found that only about half of patients felt they were given sufficient
information about ECT and its adverse effects43 and another survey found that
about fifty percent of psychiatrists and nurses agreed with them.
A 2005 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry described patients'
perspectives on the adequacy of informed consent before ECT. The study found
that, "About half (4555%) of patients reported they were given an adequate
explanation of ECT, implying a similar percentage felt they were not." The
authors also stated:
"Approximately a third did not feel they had freely consented to ECT even
when they had signed a consent form. The proportion who feel they did not
freely choose the treatment has actually increased over time. The same
themes arise whether the patient had received treatment a year ago or 30
years ago. Neither current nor proposed safeguards for patients are sufficient
to ensure informed consent with respect to ECT, at least in England and
Wales."

Involuntary ECT
Procedures for involuntary ECT vary from country to country depending on local
mental health laws. Legal proceedings are required in some countries, while in
others ECT is seen as another form of treatment that may be given involuntarily
as long as legal conditions are observed. Involuntary electroshock contravenes
the principle of autonomy in medical ethics. The maxim of autonomy is "Voluntas
aegroti suprema lex." This rule states that the will of the patient is supreme. It
implies that a patient has the right to consent to, or to refuse a medical
treatment, such as ECT. Persons considered not to be of sound mind are in many
jurisdictions considered incapable of giving true consent. In such a case, the
patient's "assent" may be sought; opinions are divided as to whether this should
be routinely done, or whether a patient who is not competent to consent to
therapy should retain the right to refuse it.
Citizens in western societies often undergo emergency medical procedures when
they have lost the capacity to consent (such as neurosurgery after head injury).
Under these circumstances, the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence
must be adhered to.

42Jones, R (1996) Mental Health Act Manual, 5th edition. London: Sweet and Maxwell, page 225.
43Rose D, Wykes T, Bindman J, Fleischmann P (2005) "Information, consent and perceived
coercion: patients' perspectives on electroconvulsive therapy". British Journal of Psychiatry
186:5459.

United States
In most states in the USA, a judicial order following a formal hearing is needed
before a patient can be forced to undergo involuntary ECT. Patients may be
represented by legal counsel at the hearing. According to the Surgeon General's
Report on Mental Health, "As a rule, the law requires that such petitions are
granted only where the prompt institution of ECT is regarded as potentially
lifesaving, as in the case of a person in grave danger because of lack of food or
fluid intake caused by catatonia." However, ECT can also be involuntarily
administered in situations with less immediate danger. Suicidal intent is a
common justification for its involuntary use, especially when other treatments
are ineffective.

United Kingdom
Until 2009 in England and Wales, the Mental Health Act 1983 allowed the use of
ECT on detained patients whether or not they had capacity to consent to it.
However, following amendments which took effect in 2009, ECT may not
generally be given to a patient who has capacity and refuses it, irrespective of
his or her detention under the Act.44 In fact, even if a patient is deemed to lack
capacity, if they made a valid advance decision refusing ECT then they should not
be given it; and even if they do not have an advance decision, the psychiatrist
must obtain an independent second opinion (which is also the case if the patient
is under age of consent).45 However, there is an exception regardless of consent
and capacity; under Section 62 of the Act, if the treating psychiatrist says the
need for treatment is urgent they may start a course of ECT without
authorization.46 About 2,000 people a year in England and Wales are treated
without their consent under the Mental Health Act.47 Concerns have been raised
by the official regulator that psychiatrists are too readily assuming that patients
have the capacity to consent to their treatments, and that there is a worrying
lack of independent advocacy.48 In Scotland the Mental Health (Care and
Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 also gives patients with capacity the right to
refuse ECT.49

44The Mental Health Act 1983 (updated version) Part IV, Section 58. Care Quality Commission
45Care Quality Commission (2010) ECT: Your rights about consent to treatment
46The Mental Health Act 1983 (updated version) Part IV, Section 62. Care Quality Commission
47The Mental Health Act Commission (2005) In Place of Fear? eleventh biennial report, 2003
2005, 236. The Stationery Office.
48Care Quality Commission (2011) CQC says care for people treated under the Mental Health
Act still needs to improve
49The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, Part 16, sections 237239.

Patient experience
NICE ECT guidelines report that some individuals consider ECT to have been a
beneficial and lifesaving treatment, while others reported feelings of terror,
shame and distress, and found it positively harmful and an abusive invasion of
personal autonomy, especially when administered without their consent.

Individual positive depictions

Kitty Dukakis, wife of politician Michael Dukakis, reports in a Newsweek article
mostly positive effects from electroconvulsive therapy, and regards memory loss
as an acceptable price to pay for relief from depression.
For me, the memory issues are real but manageable. Things I lose generally
come back. Other memories I prefer to lose, including those about the
depression I was suffering. But there are some memoriesof meetings I have
attended, people's homes I have visitedthat I don't want to lose but I can't
help it. They generally involve things I did two weeks before and two weeks
after ECT. Often they are just wiped out....I have learned ways to partly
compensate for whatever loss I still experience. I call my sister Jinny, Michael
and my kids, asking what my niece Betsy's phone number is, what we did
yesterday and what we are planning to do tomorrow. I apologize prior to
asking. I wonder when they are going to run out of patience with "Kitty being
Kitty." I hate losing memories, which means losing control over my past and
my mind, but the control ECT gives me over my disabling depression is worth
this relatively minor cost. It just is.
American psychotherapist Martha Manning's autobiographical Undercurrents
acknowledges the downside of treatment: "I felt like I'd been hit by a truck for a
while, but that was, comparatively speaking, not so bad," as well as the upside:
"Afterwards, I thought, do regular people feel this way all the time? It's like
you've not been in on a great joke for the whole of your life."
In his autobiographical book Electroboy, American writer Andy Behrman
describes undergoing ECT as a treatment for bipolar disorder while under housearrest: "I wake up thirty minutes later and think I am in a hotel in Acapulco. My
head feels as if I have just downed a frozen margarita too quickly. My jaws and
limbs ache. But I am elated."
Curtis Hartmann, a lawyer in western Massachusetts, stated: "ECT, a treatment
of last resort for severe, debilitating depression, is all that has ever worked for
me. I awaken about 20 minutes later, and although I am still groggy with
anesthesia, much of the hellish depression is gone. It is a disease that for me,
literally steals me from myselfa disease that executes me and then forces me to
stand and look down at my corpse. Thankfully, ECT has kept my monster at bay,
my hope intact".

Beverley Callard is a British actress, best known for her role as Liz McDonald in
Coronation Street. In her recently published autobiography titled "Unbroken",
she describes her experience with ECT for severe depression, stating that the
treatment was in part responsible for her recovery.
Carrie Fisher, an American actress and author best known for her role as
Princess Leia in Star Wars, praises ECT as an ongoing treatment for her bipolar
disorder in her autobiographical books Wishful Drinking and Shockaholic.
Kay Redfield Jamieson also wrote about the experience of having ECT as a
positive experience, that relieved her from the crushing pain of untreatable
depression.

Individual negative accounts

Accounts of severe long-term, permanent memory loss
In a letter to the editor published in the Washington Post in December, 2000,
registered nurse Barbara C. Cody wrote that her life was forever changed by 13
outpatient ECTs she received in 1983. She wrote,
"Shock 'therapy' totally and permanently disabled me. EEGs
[electroencephalograms] verify the extensive damage shock did to my brain.
Fifteen to 20 years of my life were simply erased; only small bits and pieces
have returned. I was also left with short-term memory impairment and serious
cognitive deficits. ... Shock 'therapy' took my past, my college education, my
musical abilities, even the knowledge that my children were, in fact, my
children. I call ECT a rape of the soul."
Similarly, writer Johnanton Cott claims to have completely lost 15 years of
memory in On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering.50

50Johnanton Cott, On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering Random
House, October 4, 2005, ISBN 1-4000-6058-3, ISBN 978-1-4000-6058-0

Despite former patients having reported devastating, permanent amnesia and

cognitive impairment since ECT was first invented, the first lawsuit for ECT
amnesia, Marilyn Rice v. John Nardini, was not brought until 1975; dozens of
suits followed. While there have been a few settlements, including one for half a
million dollars, no former patient had won a case until 2005. In a 2005 South
Carolina court proceeding, Peggy S. Salters became the first ECT survivor to win
a jury verdict and compensation. Ms. Salters sued Palmetto Baptist Medical
Center in Columbia, as well as the three doctors responsible for her care, for an
intensive course of outpatient ECT that she received in 2000, at age 55 years old,
that caused her to lose all memories of the past 30 years of her life, including all
memories of her husband of three decades, then deceased, and the births of her
three children. She held a Masters of Science in nursing and, prior to the ECT,
had a long career as a psychiatric nurse; but, as a result of the ECT, lost her
knowledge of nursing skills and was unable to return to work. The jury awarded
Salters $635,177 in compensation for her inability to work. The judgement was
upheld upon appeal in an unpublished opinion.

Accounts of severe cognitive diminishment

Liz Spikol, the senior contributing editor of Philadelphia Weekly, wrote of her
ECT in 1996,
"Not only was the ECT ineffective, it was incredibly damaging to my cognitive
functioning and memory. But sometimes it's hard to be sure of yourself when
everyone 'credible' scientists, ECT docs, researchers are telling you that
your reality isn't real. How many times have I been told my memory loss
wasn't due to ECT but to depression? How many times have I been told that,
like a lot of other consumers, I must be perceiving this incorrectly? How many
times have people told me that my feelings of trauma related to the ECT are
misplaced and unusual? It's as if I was raped and people kept telling me not to
be upsetthat it wasn't that bad."

Involuntary or other problems in administrating ECT

ECT received a lot of bad press much like psychosurgery did. There were cases
publicized of it being administered improperly. The news would boast examples
of ECT being used as a means of punishment for patients in mental institutions
with chronic behavior problems. At times these treatments were even
administered without proper anesthetics or restraints. In 2007, a judge canceled
a two-year-old court order that allowed the involuntary electroshock of Simone
D., a psychiatric patient at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in the state of New
York.51 Although Simone spoke only Spanish, she rarely received access to staff
fluent in her language.52 Simone previously had 200 electroshocks. However, she
communicated that she did not want more electroshock. Simone stated,
"Electroshock causes more pain. I suffer more from shock treatment! "
In 2008, David Tarloff, a psychiatric patient who had received electroshock,
assaulted two therapists in the city of New York. Tarloff injured one therapist and
killed the other. One of the therapists was Kent Shinbach, a psychiatrist who had
an interest in electroconvulsive therapy. "It is not clear whether Dr. Shinbach
played any role in Mr. Tarloff's shock therapy". However, Tarloff told
investigators that Shinbach had given Tarloff psychiatric treatment at a
psychiatric facility initially in 1991.

Other descriptions
In an interview with Houston Chronicle in 1996, Melissa Holliday, a former extra
on Baywatch and model for Playboy stated the ECT she received in 1995, "ruined
her life." She went on to state, "I've been through a rape, and electroshock
therapy is worse. If you haven't gone through it, I can't explain it."

Historical Accounts
Ernest Hemingway, American author, committed suicide shortly after ECT at the
Mayo Clinic in 1961. He is reported to have said to his biographer, "Well, what is
the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and
putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient...."53
In a poem, The Hanging Man, by Sylvia Plath ECT is described:
1. By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me.
2. I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet.
51MindFreedom International. Another victory against forced electroshock. Simone D. wins!
August 28, 2007. Accessed: April 18, 2008.
52Lauren Tenney. Testimony from Lauren Tenney, Member of FUTURE Views and the Mental
Patients Liberation Alliance. New York State Office of Mental Health, October 5, 2007. Accessed:
April 18, 2008.
53A. E. Hotchner, Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir, ISBN 0-7867-0592-2; pg 280

3. The nights snapped out of sight like a lizard's eyelid:

4. A world of bald white days in a shadeless socket.
5. A vulturous boredom pinned me in this tree.
6. If he were I, he would do what I did.

Public perception and mass media

A questionnaire survey of 379 members of the general public in Australia
indicated that more than 60% of respondents had some knowledge about the
main aspects of ECT. Participants were generally opposed to the use of ECT on
depressed individuals with psychosocial issues, on children, and on involuntary
patients. Public perceptions of ECT were found to be mainly negative.

Fictional examples
Electroconvulsive therapy has been depicted in fiction and works based on true
experiences. These include A Clockwork Orange, The Snake Pit, Quantum Leap,
Stargate, Frances, Requiem for a Dream, the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest by Ken Kesey as well as the movie adaptation, the literary works of Janet
Frame, Melrose Place, A Beautiful Mind, The Caretaker, The Best of Youth,
House; The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Shine, the movie adaptation of The Beverly
Hillbillies, the film version of Girl, Interrupted, Insanitarium, Changeling, Ciao!
Manhattan, Next to Normal, Return to Oz, Private Practice, Ghost Whisperer,
Shutter Island, From Beyond, the novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance, Helen, Oz, Six Feet Under, House on Haunted Hill, Royal Pains,
The Wolfman, Homeland, Wrong Turn 4, Constantine, The A-Team (2010 Film),
Cold Case,Supernatural, General Hospital, American Horror Story: Asylum and
Mad Men. It is also referred to in the lyrics of the Eels, The Mars Volta,
Morrissey and Public Image Limited.

External links
Position Statement on Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) [PDF] from the
American Psychiatric Association.
MIND on ECT information on ECT from MIND (leading mental health charity
in England and Wales).
About to have ECT? ... Psychiatric Times article on the portrayal of ECT by
Hollywood
ECT - information from mental health charity The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Electroencephalography
EEG
Intervention

An EEG recording at Dalhousie University

ICD-9-CM

89.14

MeSH

D004569

OPS-301 code:

1-207

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the

scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows
within the neurons of the brain. In clinical contexts, EEG refers to the recording
of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time, usually
2040 minutes, as recorded from multiple electrodes placed on the scalp.
Diagnostic applications generally focus on the spectral content of EEG, that is,
the type of neural oscillations that can be observed in EEG signals. In neurology,
the main diagnostic application of EEG is in the case of epilepsy, as epileptic
activity can create clear abnormalities on a standard EEG study.54 A secondary
clinical use of EEG is in the diagnosis of coma, encephalopathies, and brain
death. A third clinical use of EEG is for studies of sleep and sleep disorders
where recordings are typically done for one full night, sometimes more. EEG
used to be a first-line method for the diagnosis of tumors, stroke and other focal
brain disorders, but this use has decreased with the advent of anatomical
imaging techniques with high (<1 mm) spatial resolution such as MRI and CT.
Despite limited spatial resolution, EEG continues to be a valuable tool for
research and diagnosis, especially when millisecond-range temporal resolution
(not possible with CT or MRI) is required.
Derivatives of the EEG technique include evoked potentials (EP), which involves
averaging the EEG activity time-locked to the presentation of a stimulus of some
sort (visual, somatosensory, or auditory). Event-related potentials (ERPs) refer to
averaged EEG responses that are time-locked to more complex processing of
stimuli; this technique is used in cognitive science, cognitive psychology, and
psychophysiological research.

54Atlas of EEG & Seizure Semiology. B. Abou-Khalil; Musilus, K.E.; Elsevier, 2006.

History
A timeline of the history of EEG is given by Swartz. Richard Caton (18421926),
a physician practicing in Liverpool, presented his findings about electrical
phenomena of the exposed cerebral hemispheres of rabbits and monkeys in the
British Medical Journal in 1875. In 1890, Polish physiologist Adolf Beck
published an investigation of spontaneous electrical activity of the brain of
rabbits and dogs that included rhythmic oscillations altered by light.
In 1912, Russian physiologist, Vladimir Vladimirovich Pravdich-Neminsky
published the first animal EEG and the evoked potential of the mammalian (dog).
In 1914, Napoleon Cybulski and Jelenska-Macieszyna photographed EEGrecordings of experimentally induced seizures.
German physiologist and psychiatrist Hans Berger (18731941) recorded the
first human EEG in 1924. Expanding on work previously conducted on animals
by Richard Caton and others, Berger also invented the electroencephalogram
(giving the device its name), an invention described "as one of the most
surprising, remarkable, and momentous developments in the history of clinical
neurology".55 His discoveries were first confirmed by British scientists Edgar
Douglas Adrian and B. H. C. Matthews in 1934 and developed by them.
In 1934, Fisher and Lowenback first demonstrated epileptiform spikes. In 1935
Gibbs, Davis and Lennox described interictal spike waves and the 3 cycles/s
pattern of clinical absence seizures, which began the field of clinical
electroencephalography. Subsequently, in 1936 Gibbs and Jasper reported the
interictal spike as the focal signature of epilepsy. The same year, the first EEG
laboratory opened at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Franklin Offner (19111999), professor of biophysics at Northwestern University
developed a prototype of the EEG that incorporated a piezoelectric inkwriter
called a Crystograph (the whole device was typically known as the Offner
Dynograph).
In 1947, The American EEG Society was founded and the first International EEG
congress was held. In 1953 Aserinsky and Kleitman describe REM sleep.
In the 1950s, William Grey Walter developed an adjunct to EEG called EEG
topography, which allowed for the mapping of electrical activity across the
surface of the brain. This enjoyed a brief period of popularity in the 1980s and
seemed especially promising for psychiatry. It was never accepted by
neurologists and remains primarily a research tool.

55Millet, David (2002). "The Origins of EEG". International Society for the History of the
Neurosciences (ISHN).

Source of EEG activity

The brain's electrical charge is maintained by billions of neurons. Neurons are
electrically charged (or "polarized") by membrane transport proteins that pump
ions across their membranes. Neurons are constantly exchanging ions with the
extracellular milieu, for example to maintain resting potential and to propagate
action potentials. Ions of similar charge repel each other, and when many ions
are pushed out of many neurons at the same time, they can push their
neighbours, who push their neighbours, and so on, in a wave. This process is
known as volume conduction. When the wave of ions reaches the electrodes on
the scalp, they can push or pull electrons on the metal on the electrodes. Since
metal conducts the push and pull of electrons easily, the difference in push or
pull voltages between any two electrodes can be measured by a voltmeter.
Recording these voltages over time gives us the EEG.56
The electric potential generated by single neuron is far too small to be picked up
by EEG or MEG. EEG activity therefore always reflects the summation of the
synchronous activity of thousands or millions of neurons that have similar spatial
orientation. If the cells do not have similar spatial orientation, their ions do not
line up and create waves to be detected. Pyramidal neurons of the cortex are
thought to produce the most EEG signal because they are well-aligned and fire
together. Because voltage fields fall off with the square of distance, activity from
deep sources is more difficult to detect than currents near the skull.
Scalp EEG activity shows oscillations at a variety of frequencies. Several of these
oscillations have characteristic frequency ranges, spatial distributions and are
associated with different states of brain functioning (e.g., waking and the various
sleep stages). These oscillations represent synchronized activity over a network
of neurons. The neuronal networks underlying some of these oscillations are
understood (e.g., the thalamocortical resonance underlying sleep spindles), while
many others are not (e.g., the system that generates the posterior basic rhythm).
Research that measures both EEG and neuron spiking finds the relationship
between the two is complex, with a combination of EEG power in the gamma
band and phase in the delta band relating most strongly to neuron spike activity.

Clinical use
A routine clinical EEG recording typically lasts 2030 minutes (plus preparation
time) and usually involves recording from scalp electrodes. Routine EEG is
typically used in the following clinical circumstances:
to distinguish epileptic seizures from other types of spells, such as psychogenic
non-epileptic seizures, syncope (fainting), sub-cortical movement disorders and
migraine variants.

56Tatum, W. O., Husain, A. M., Benbadis, S. R. (2008) "Handbook of EEG Interpretation" Demos
Medical Publishing.

to differentiate "organic" encephalopathy or delirium from primary psychiatric

syndromes such as catatonia
to serve as an adjunct test of brain death
to prognosticate, in certain instances, in patients with coma
to determine whether to wean anti-epileptic medications
At times, a routine EEG is not sufficient, particularly when it is necessary to
record a patient while he/she is having a seizure. In this case, the patient may be
admitted to the hospital for days or even weeks, while EEG is constantly being
recorded (along with time-synchronized video and audio recording). A recording
of an actual seizure (i.e., an ictal recording, rather than an inter-ictal recording
of a possibly epileptic patient at some period between seizures) can give
significantly better information about whether or not a spell is an epileptic
seizure and the focus in the brain from which the seizure activity emanates.
Epilepsy monitoring is typically done:
to distinguish epileptic seizures from other types of spells, such as psychogenic
non-epileptic seizures, syncope (fainting), sub-cortical movement disorders and
migraine variants.
to characterize seizures for the purposes of treatment
to localize the region of brain from which a seizure originates for work-up of
possible seizure surgery
Additionally, EEG may be used to monitor certain procedures:
to monitor the depth of anesthesia
as an indirect indicator of cerebral perfusion in carotid endarterectomy
to monitor amobarbital effect during the Wada test
EEG can also be used in intensive care units for brain function monitoring:
to monitor for non-convulsive seizures/non-convulsive status epilepticus
to monitor the effect of sedative/anesthesia in patients in medically induced
coma (for treatment of refractory seizures or increased intracranial pressure)
to monitor for secondary brain damage in conditions such as subarachnoid
hemorrhage (currently a research method)

If a patient with epilepsy is being considered for resective surgery, it is often

necessary to localize the focus (source) of the epileptic brain activity with a
resolution greater than what is provided by scalp EEG. This is because the
cerebrospinal fluid, skull and scalp smear the electrical potentials recorded by
scalp EEG. In these cases, neurosurgeons typically implant strips and grids of
electrodes (or penetrating depth electrodes) under the dura mater, through
either a craniotomy or a burr hole. The recording of these signals is referred to
as electrocorticography (ECoG), subdural EEG (sdEEG) or intracranial EEG
(icEEG)--all terms for the same thing. The signal recorded from ECoG is on a
different scale of activity than the brain activity recorded from scalp EEG. Low
voltage, high frequency components that cannot be seen easily (or at all) in scalp
EEG can be seen clearly in ECoG. Further, smaller electrodes (which cover a
smaller parcel of brain surface) allow even lower voltage, faster components of
brain activity to be seen. Some clinical sites record from penetrating
microelectrodes.

Research use
EEG, and the related study of ERPs are used extensively in neuroscience,
cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neurolinguistics and psychophysiological
research. Many EEG techniques used in research are not standardized
sufficiently for clinical use.

Relative advantages
Several other methods to study brain function exist, including functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography,
magnetoencephalography, Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,
Electrocorticography, Single-photon emission computed tomography, Nearinfrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and Event-related optical signal (EROS). Despite
the relatively poor spatial sensitivity of EEG, it possesses multiple advantages
over some of these techniques:
Hardware costs are significantly lower than those of most other techniques
EEG sensors can be used in more places than fMRI, SPECT, PET, MRS, or MEG,
as these techniques require bulky and immobile equipment. For example, MEG
requires equipment consisting of liquid helium-cooled detectors that can be used
only in magnetically shielded rooms, altogether costing upwards of several
million dollars; and fMRI requires the use of a 1-ton magnet in, again, a shielded
room.

EEG has very high temporal resolution, on the order of milliseconds rather than
seconds. EEG is commonly recorded at sampling rates between 250 and 2000 Hz
in clinical and research settings, but modern EEG data collection systems are
capable of recording at sampling rates above 20,000 Hz if desired. MEG and
EROS are the only other noninvasive cognitive neuroscience techniques that
acquire data at this level of temporal resolution.
EEG is relatively tolerant of subject movement, unlike most other neuroimaging
techniques. There even exist methods for minimizing, and even eliminating
movement artefacts in EEG data
EEG is silent, which allows for better study of the responses to auditory stimuli
EEG does not aggravate claustrophobia, unlike fMRI, PET, MRS, SPECT, and
sometimes MEG
EEG does not involve exposure to high-intensity (>1 Tesla) magnetic fields, as
in some of the other techniques, especially MRI and MRS. These can cause a
variety of undesirable issues with the data, and also prohibit use of these
techniques with participants that have metal implants in their body, such as
metal-containing pacemakers
EEG does not involve exposure to radioligands, unlike positron emission
tomography.
ERP studies can be conducted with relatively simple paradigms, compared with
IE block-design fMRI studies
Extremely uninvasive, unlike Electrocorticography, which actually requires
electrodes to be placed on the surface of the brain.
EEG also has some characteristics that compare favorably with behavioral
testing:
EEG can detect covert processing (i.e., processing that does not require a
response)
EEG can be used in subjects who are incapable of making a motor response
Some ERP components can be detected even when the subject is not attending
to the stimuli
Unlike other means of studying reaction time, ERPs can elucidate stages of
processing (rather than just the final end result)
EEG is a powerful tool for tracking brain changes during different phases of life.
EEG sleep analysis can indicate significant aspects of the timing of brain
development, including evaluating adolescent brain maturation. Brain activity
can also be monitored by ct's.57

57http://www.ct.gov/ceq/cwp/view.asp?a=987&q=249438

Relative disadvantages
Low spatial resolution on the scalp. fMRI, for example, can directly display
areas of the brain that are active, while EEG requires intense interpretation just
to hypothesize what areas are activated by a particular response.
EEG determines neural activity that occurs below the upper layers of the brain
(the cortex) poorly.
Unlike PET and MRS, cannot identify specific locations in the brain at which
various neurotransmitters, drugs, etc. can be found.
Often takes a long time to connect a subject to EEG, as it requires precise
placement of dozens of electrodes around the head and the use of various gels,
saline solutions, and/or pastes to keep them in place. While the length of time
differs dependent on the specific EEG device used, as a general rule it takes
considerably less time to prepare a subject for MEG, fMRI, MRS, and SPECT.
Signal-to-noise ratio is poor, so sophisticated data analysis and relatively large
numbers of subjects are needed to extract useful information from EEG

Combining EEG with other neuroimaging techniques

Simultaneous EEG recordings and fMRI scans have been obtained successfully,
though successful simultaneous recording requires that several technical
difficulties be overcome, such as the presence of ballistocardiographic artifact,
MRI pulse artifact and the induction of electrical currents in EEG wires that
move within the strong magnetic fields of the MRI. While challenging, these have
been successfully overcome in a number of studies.
Similarly, simultaneous recordings with MEG and EEG have also been conducted,
which has several advantages over using either technique alone:
EEG requires accurate information about certain aspects of the skull that can
only be estimated, such as skull radius, and conductivities of various skull
locations. MEG does not have this issue, and a simultaneous analysis allows this
to be corrected for.
MEG and EEG both detect activity below the surface of the cortex very poorly,
and like EEG, the level of error increases with the depth below the surface of the
cortex one attempts to examine. However, the errors are very different between
the techniques, and combining them thus allows for correction of some of this
noise.
MEG has access to virtually no sources of brain activity below a few
centimetres under the cortex. EEG, on the other hand, can receive signals from
greater depth, albeit with a high degree of noise. Combining the two makes it
easier to determine what in the EEG signal comes from the surface (since MEG
is very accurate in examining signals from the surface of the brain), and what
comes from deeper in the brain, thus allowing for analysis of deeper brain
signals than either EEG or MEG on its own.

EEG has also been combined with positron emission tomography. This provides
the advantage of allowing researchers to see what EEG signals are associated
with different drug actions in the brain.

Method
In conventional scalp EEG, the recording is obtained by placing electrodes on the
scalp with a conductive gel or paste, usually after preparing the scalp area by
light abrasion to reduce impedance due to dead skin cells. Many systems
typically use electrodes, each of which is attached to an individual wire. Some
systems use caps or nets into which electrodes are embedded; this is particularly
common when high-density arrays of electrodes are needed.
Electrode locations and names are specified by the International 1020 system
for most clinical and research applications (except when high-density arrays are
used). This system ensures that the naming of electrodes is consistent across
laboratories. In most clinical applications, 19 recording electrodes (plus ground
and system reference) are used. A smaller number of electrodes are typically
used when recording EEG from neonates. Additional electrodes can be added to
the standard set-up when a clinical or research application demands increased
spatial resolution for a particular area of the brain. High-density arrays (typically
via cap or net) can contain up to 256 electrodes more-or-less evenly spaced
around the scalp.
Each electrode is connected to one input of a differential amplifier (one amplifier
per pair of electrodes); a common system reference electrode is connected to the
other input of each differential amplifier. These amplifiers amplify the voltage
between the active electrode and the reference (typically 1,000100,000 times,
or 60100 dB of voltage gain). In analog EEG, the signal is then filtered (next
paragraph), and the EEG signal is output as the deflection of pens as paper
passes underneath. Most EEG systems these days, however, are digital, and the
amplified signal is digitized via an analog-to-digital converter, after being passed
through an anti-aliasing filter. Analog-to-digital sampling typically occurs at 256
512 Hz in clinical scalp EEG; sampling rates of up to 20 kHz are used in some
research applications.
During the recording, a series of activation procedures may be used. These
procedures may induce normal or abnormal EEG activity that might not
otherwise be seen. These procedures include hyperventilation, photic stimulation
(with a strobe light), eye closure, mental activity, sleep and sleep deprivation.
During (inpatient) epilepsy monitoring, a patient's typical seizure medications
may be withdrawn.

The digital EEG signal is stored electronically and can be filtered for display.
Typical settings for the high-pass filter and a low-pass filter are 0.5-1 Hz and 35
70 Hz, respectively. The high-pass filter typically filters out slow artifact, such as
electrogalvanic signals and movement artifact, whereas the low-pass filter filters
out high-frequency artifacts, such as electromyographic signals. An additional
notch filter is typically used to remove artifact caused by electrical power lines
(60 Hz in the United States and 50 Hz in many other countries).
As part of an evaluation for epilepsy surgery, it may be necessary to insert
electrodes near the surface of the brain, under the surface of the dura mater.
This is accomplished via burr hole or craniotomy. This is referred to variously as
"electrocorticography (ECoG)", "intracranial EEG (I-EEG)" or "subdural EEG (SDEEG)". Depth electrodes may also be placed into brain structures, such as the
amygdala or hippocampus, structures, which are common epileptic foci and may
not be "seen" clearly by scalp EEG. The electrocorticographic signal is processed
in the same manner as digital scalp EEG (above), with a couple of caveats. ECoG
is typically recorded at higher sampling rates than scalp EEG because of the
requirements of Nyquist theoremthe subdural signal is composed of a higher
predominance of higher frequency components. Also, many of the artifacts that
affect scalp EEG do not impact ECoG, and therefore display filtering is often not
needed.
A typical adult human EEG signal is about 10 V to 100 V in amplitude when
measured from the scalp and is about 1020 mV when measured from subdural
electrodes.
The EEG recording can be analysed using various programs; e.g., using free
open-source toolboxes for Matlab, such as, EEGLAB, Fieldtrip, NBT, SPM, or
commercial software packages such as Brainvision Analyzer.
Since an EEG voltage signal represents a difference between the voltages at two
electrodes, the display of the EEG for the reading encephalographer may be set
up in one of several ways. The representation of the EEG channels is referred to
as a montage.
Squential montage
Each channel (i.e., waveform) represents the difference between two adjacent
electrodes. The entire montage consists of a series of these channels. For
example, the channel "Fp1-F3" represents the difference in voltage between the
Fp1 electrode and the F3 electrode. The next channel in the montage, "F3-C3,"
represents the voltage difference between F3 and C3, and so on through the
entire array of electrodes.
Referential montage
Each channel represents the difference between a certain electrode and a
designated reference electrode. There is no standard position for this
reference; it is, however, at a different position than the "recording" electrodes.
Midline positions are often used because they do not amplify the signal in one
hemisphere vs. the other. Another popular reference is "linked ears," which is a
physical or mathematical average of electrodes attached to both earlobes or
mastoids.

Average reference montage

The outputs of all of the amplifiers are summed and averaged, and this
averaged signal is used as the common reference for each channel.
Laplacian montage
Each channel represents the difference between an electrode and a weighted
average of the surrounding electrodes.
When analog (paper) EEGs are used, the technologist switches between
montages during the recording in order to highlight or better characterize
certain features of the EEG. With digital EEG, all signals are typically digitized
and stored in a particular (usually referential) montage; since any montage can
be constructed mathematically from any other, the EEG can be viewed by the
electroencephalographer in any display montage that is desired.
The EEG is read by a clinical neurophysiologist or neurologist (depending on
local custom and law regarding medical specialities), optimally one who has
specific training in the interpretation of EEGs for clinical purposes. This is done
by visual inspection of the waveforms, called graphoelements. The use of
computer signal processing of the EEGso-called quantitative EEGis
somewhat controversial when used for clinical purposes (although there are
many research uses).

Limitations
EEG has several limitations. Most important is its poor spatial resolution. EEG is
most sensitive to a particular set of post-synaptic potentials: those generated in
superficial layers of the cortex, on the crests of gyri directly abutting the skull
and radial to the skull. Dendrites, which are deeper in the cortex, inside sulci, in
midline or deep structures (such as the cingulate gyrus or hippocampus), or
producing currents that are tangential to the skull, have far less contribution to
the EEG signal.
The meninges, cerebrospinal fluid and skull "smear" the EEG signal, obscuring
its intracranial source.
It is mathematically impossible to reconstruct a unique intracranial current
source for a given EEG signal, as some currents produce potentials that cancel
each other out. This is referred to as the inverse problem. However, much work
has been done to produce remarkably good estimates of, at least, a localized
electric dipole that represents the recorded currents.[citation needed]

EEG vs fMRI, fNIRS and PET

EEG has several strong points as a tool for exploring brain activity. EEGs can
detect changes over milliseconds, which is excellent considering an action
potential takes approximately 0.5-130 milliseconds to propagate across a single
neuron, depending on the type of neuron. Other methods of looking at brain
activity, such as PET and fMRI have time resolution between seconds and
minutes. EEG measures the brain's electrical activity directly, while other
methods record changes in blood flow (e.g., SPECT, fMRI) or metabolic activity
(e.g., PET, NIRS), which are indirect markers of brain electrical activity. EEG can
be used simultaneously with fMRI so that high-temporal-resolution data can be
recorded at the same time as high-spatial-resolution data, however, since the
data derived from each occurs over a different time course, the data sets do not
necessarily represent exactly the same brain activity. There are technical
difficulties associated with combining these two modalities, including the need to
remove the MRI gradient artifact present during MRI acquisition and the
ballistocardiographic artifact (resulting from the pulsatile motion of blood and
tissue) from the EEG. Furthermore, currents can be induced in moving EEG
electrode wires due to the magnetic field of the MRI.
EEG can be used simultaneously with NIRS without major technical difficulties.
There is no influence of these modalities on each other and a combined
measurement can give useful information about electrical activity as well as local
hemodynamics.

EEG vs MEG
EEG reflects correlated synaptic activity caused by post-synaptic potentials of
cortical neurons. The ionic currents involved in the generation of fast action
potentials may not contribute greatly to the averaged field potentials
representing the EEG . More specifically, the scalp electrical potentials that
produce EEG are generally thought to be caused by the extracellular ionic
currents caused by dendritic electrical activity, whereas the fields producing
magnetoencephalographic signals are associated with intracellular ionic currents
.
EEG can be recorded at the same time as MEG so that data from these
complementary high-time-resolution techniques can be combined.
Studies on numerical modeling of EEG and MEG have also been done. See
http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2006/isbn9512280914/ (Tanzer Oguz, Ph.D. Thesis)

Normal activity
The EEG is typically described in terms of (1) rhythmic activity and (2)
transients. The rhythmic activity is divided into bands by frequency. To some
degree, these frequency bands are a matter of nomenclature (i.e., any rhythmic
activity between 812 Hz can be described as "alpha"), but these designations
arose because rhythmic activity within a certain frequency range was noted to
have a certain distribution over the scalp or a certain biological significance.
Frequency bands are usually extracted using spectral methods (for instance
Welch) as implemented for instance in freely available EEG software such as
EEGLAB or the the neurophysiological biomarker toolbox.
Most of the cerebral signal observed in the scalp EEG falls in the range of 1
20 Hz (activity below or above this range is likely to be artifactual, under
standard clinical recording techniques).

Comparison table of EEG rhythmic activity frequency

bands
Comparison of EEG bands
Band

Frequency (Hz) Location

Delta

up to 4

Theta

47

frontally in
adults,
posteriorly in
children; highamplitude
waves

Normally

Pathologically

adult slowwave sleep

subcortical
lesions

in babies

diffuse lesions

Has been
found during
some
continuousattention tasks

metabolic
encephalopathy
hydrocephalus
deep midline
lesions

Found in
locations not
young children focal
related to task
subcortical
drowsiness or
at hand
lesions
arousal in older
children and
metabolic
adults
encephalopathy
idling

deep midline
disorders

Associated
with inhibition some
of elicited
instances of

responses (has hydrocephalus

been found to
spike in
situations
where a person
is actively
trying to
repress a
response or
action).
Alpha

7 - 14

posterior
regions of head,
relaxed/reflect coma
both sides,
ing
higher in
closing the
amplitude on
non-dominant eyes
side. Central
Also
sites (c3-c4) at associated with
rest
inhibition
control,
seemingly with
the purpose of
timing
inhibitory
activity in
different
locations across
the brain.

Beta

Gamma

15 - 30

30 100+

both sides,
symmetrical
distribution,
most evident
frontally; lowamplitude
waves
Somatosensory
cortex

alert/wo
active, busy, or
anxious
thinking, active
concentration

benzodiazepin
es

Displays
A decrease in
during crossgamma-band
modal sensory activity may be
processing
associated with
(perception that cognitive

combines two
different
senses, such as
sound and
sight)

decline,
especially when
related to the
theta band;
however, this
has not been
Also is shown
proven for use
during shortas a clinical
term memory
diagnostic
matching of
measurement
recognized
objects, sounds,
or tactile
sensations
Mu

8 13

Sensorimotor
cortex

Shows reststate motor

neurons.

Mu
suppression
could indicate
that motor
mirror neurons
are working.
Deficits in Mu
suppression,
and thus in
mirror neurons,
might play a
role in autism.

While these are the universally recognized frequency ranges that researchers
tend to follow, many scholars use their own specific range boundaries depending
on the frequencies they choose to focus on. Additionally, some researchers define
the bands using decimal values rather than rounding to whole numbers (for
example, one researcher may define the lower Beta band cut-off as 12.1, while
another may use the value 13), while still others sometimes divide the bands into
subbands for the purposes of data analysis.

Wave patterns
Delta is the frequency range up to 4 Hz. It tends to be the highest in amplitude
and the slowest waves. It is seen normally in adults in slow wave sleep. It is also
seen normally in babies. It may occur focally with subcortical lesions and in
general distribution with diffuse lesions, metabolic encephalopathy
hydrocephalus or deep midline lesions. It is usually most prominent frontally in
adults (e.g. FIRDA - Frontal Intermittent Rhythmic Delta) and posteriorly in
children (e.g. OIRDA - Occipital Intermittent Rhythmic Delta).
Theta is the frequency range from 4 Hz to 7 Hz. Theta is seen normally in young
children. It may be seen in drowsiness or arousal in older children and adults; it
can also be seen in meditation. Excess theta for age represents abnormal activity.
It can be seen as a focal disturbance in focal subcortical lesions; it can be seen in
generalized distribution in diffuse disorder or metabolic encephalopathy or deep
midline disorders or some instances of hydrocephalus. On the contrary this
range has been associated with reports of relaxed, meditative, and creative
states.
Alpha is the frequency range from 7 Hz to
14 Hz. Hans Berger named the first rhythmic
EEG activity he saw as the "alpha wave".
sensorimotor rhythm aka mu rhythm.
This was the "posterior basic rhythm" (also
called the "posterior dominant rhythm" or
the "posterior alpha rhythm"), seen in the posterior regions of the head on both
sides, higher in amplitude on the dominant side. It emerges with closing of the
eyes and with relaxation, and attenuates with eye opening or mental exertion.
The posterior basic rhythm is actually slower than 8 Hz in young children
(therefore technically in the theta range).
In addition to the posterior basic rhythm, there are other normal alpha rhythms
such as the mu rhythm (alpha activity in the contralateral sensory and motor
cortical areas that emerges when the hands and arms are idle; and the "third
rhythm" (alpha activity in the temporal or frontal lobes). Alpha can be abnormal;
for example, an EEG that has diffuse alpha occurring in coma and is not
responsive to external stimuli is referred to as "alpha coma".
Beta is the frequency range from 15 Hz to about 30 Hz. It is seen usually on
both sides in symmetrical distribution and is most evident frontally. Beta activity
is closely linked to motor behavior and is generally attenuated during active
movements. Low amplitude beta with multiple and varying frequencies is often
associated with active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration.
Rhythmic beta with a dominant set of frequencies is associated with various
pathologies and drug effects, especially benzodiazepines. It may be absent or
reduced in areas of cortical damage. It is the dominant rhythm in patients who
are alert or anxious or who have their eyes open.

Gamma is the frequency range approximately 30100 Hz. Gamma rhythms are
thought to represent binding of different populations of neurons together into a
network for the purpose of carrying out a certain cognitive or motor function.
Mu ranges 813 Hz., and partly overlaps with other frequencies. It reflects the
synchronous firing of motor neurons in rest state. Mu suppression is thought to
reflect motor mirror neuron systems, because when an action is observed, the
pattern extinguishes, possibly because of the normal neuronal system and the
mirror neuron system "go out of sync", and interfere with each other.
"Ultra-slow" or "near-DC" (Direct current) activity is recorded using DC
amplifiers in some research contexts. It is not typically recorded in a clinical
context because the signal at these frequencies is susceptible to a number of
artifacts.
Some features of the EEG are transient rather than rhythmic. Spikes and sharp
waves may represent seizure activity or interictal activity in individuals with
epilepsy or a predisposition toward epilepsy. Other transient features are normal:
vertex waves and sleep spindles are seen in normal sleep.
Note that there are types of activity that are statistically uncommon, but not
associated with dysfunction or disease. These are often referred to as "normal
variants." The mu rhythm is an example of a normal variant.
The normal Electroencephalography (EEG) varies by age. The neonatal EEG is
quite different from the adult EEG. The EEG in childhood generally has slower
frequency oscillations than the adult EEG.
The normal EEG also varies depending on state. The EEG is used along with
other measurements (EOG, EMG) to define sleep stages in polysomnography.
Stage I sleep (equivalent to drowsiness in some systems) appears on the EEG as
drop-out of the posterior basic rhythm. There can be an increase in theta
frequencies. Santamaria and Chiappa cataloged a number of the variety of
patterns associated with drowsiness. Stage II sleep is characterized by sleep
spindlestransient runs of rhythmic activity in the 1214 Hz range (sometimes
referred to as the "sigma" band) that have a frontal-central maximum. Most of
the activity in Stage II is in the 36 Hz range. Stage III and IV sleep are defined
by the presence of delta frequencies and are often referred to collectively as
"slow-wave sleep." Stages I-IV comprise non-REM (or "NREM") sleep. The EEG
in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep appears somewhat similar to the awake
EEG.
EEG under general anesthesia depends on the type of anesthetic employed. With
halogenated anesthetics, such as halothane or intravenous agents, such as
propofol, a rapid (alpha or low beta), nonreactive EEG pattern is seen over most
of the scalp, especially anteriorly; in some older terminology this was known as a
WAR (widespread anterior rapid) pattern, contrasted with a WAIS (widespread
slow) pattern associated with high doses of opiates. Anesthetic effects on EEG
signals are beginning to be understood at the level of drug actions on different
kinds of synapses and the circuits that allow synchronized neuronal activity (see:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/maciverlab/).

Artifacts
Biological artifacts
Electrical signals detected along the scalp by an EEG, but that originate from
non-cerebral origin are called artifacts. EEG data is almost always contaminated
by such artifacts. The amplitude of artifacts can be quite large relative to the size
of amplitude of the cortical signals of interest. This is one of the reasons why it
takes considerable experience to correctly interpret EEGs clinically. Some of the
most common types of biological artifacts include:
Eye-induced artifacts (includes eye blinks, eye movements and extra-ocular
muscle activity)
ECG (cardiac) artifacts
EMG (muscle activation)-induced artifacts
Glossokinetic artifacts
The most prominent eye-induced artifacts are caused by the potential difference
between the cornea and retina, which is quite large compared to cerebral
potentials. When the eyes and eyelids are completely still, this corneo-retinal
dipole does not affect EEG. However, blinks occur several times per minute, the
eyes movements occur several times per second. Eyelid movements, occurring
mostly during blinking or vertical eye movements, elicit a large potential seen
mostly in the difference between the Electrooculography (EOG) channels above
and below the eyes. An established explanation of this potential regards the
eyelids as sliding electrodes that short-circuit the positively charged cornea to
the extra-ocular skin. Rotation of the eyeballs, and consequently of the corneoretinal dipole, increases the potential in electrodes towards which the eyes are
rotated, and decrease the potentials in the opposing electrodes. Eye movements
called saccades also generate transient electromyographic potentials, known as
saccadic spike potentials (SPs). The spectrum of these SPs overlaps the gammaband (see Gamma wave), and seriously confounds analysis of induced gammaband responses, requiring tailored artifact correction approaches. Purposeful or
reflexive eye blinking also generates electromyographic potentials, but more
importantly there is reflexive movement of the eyeball during blinking that gives
a characteristic artifactual appearance of the EEG (see Bell's phenomenon).

Eyelid fluttering artifacts of a characteristic type were previously called Kappa

rhythm (or Kappa waves). It is usually seen in the prefrontal leads, that is, just
over the eyes. Sometimes they are seen with mental activity. They are usually in
the Theta (47 Hz) or Alpha (714 Hz) range. They were named because they
were believed to originate from the brain. Later study revealed they were
generated by rapid fluttering of the eyelids, sometimes so minute that it was
difficult to see. They are in fact noise in the EEG reading, and should not
technically be called a rhythm or wave. Therefore, current usage in
electroencephalography refers to the phenomenon as an eyelid fluttering
artifact, rather than a Kappa rhythm (or wave).
Some of these artifacts can be useful in various applications. The EOG signals,
for instance, can be used to detect and track eye-movements, which are very
important in polysomnography, and is also in conventional EEG for assessing
possible changes in alertness, drowsiness or sleep.
EKG artifacts are quite common and can be mistaken for spike activity. Because
of this, modern EEG acquisition commonly includes a one-channel EKG from the
extremities. This also allows the EEG to identify cardiac arrhythmias that are an
important differential diagnosis to syncope or other episodic/attack disorders.
Glossokinetic artifacts are caused by the potential difference between the base
and the tip of the tongue. Minor tongue movements can contaminate the EEG,
especially in parkinsonian and tremor disorders.

Environmental artifacts
In addition to artifacts generated by the body, many artifacts originate from
outside the body. Movement by the patient, or even just settling of the
electrodes, may cause electrode pops, spikes originating from a momentary
change in the impedance of a given electrode. Poor grounding of the EEG
electrodes can cause significant 50 or 60 Hz artifact, depending on the local
power system's frequency. A third source of possible interference can be the
presence of an IV drip; such devices can cause rhythmic, fast, low-voltage bursts,
which may be confused for spikes.

Artifact correction
Recently, independent component analysis techniques have been used to correct
or remove EEG contaminants. These techniques attempt to "unmix" the EEG
signals into some number of underlying components. There are many source
separation algorithms, often assuming various behaviors or natures of EEG.
Regardless, the principle behind any particular method usually allow "remixing"
only those components that would result in "clean" EEG by nullifying (zeroing)
the weight of unwanted components. Fully automated artifact rejection methods,
which use ICA, have also been developed.

In the last few years, by comparing data from paralysed and unparalysed
subjects, EEG contamination by muscle has been shown to be far more prevalent
than had previously been realized, particularly in the gamma range above 20Hz.
However, Surface Laplacian has been shown to be effective in eliminating muscle
artefact, particularly for central electrodes, which are further from the strongest
contaminants.

Abnormal activity
Abnormal activity can broadly be separated into epileptiform and nonepileptiform activity. It can also be separated into focal or diffuse.
Focal epileptiform discharges represent fast, synchronous potentials in a large
number of neurons in a somewhat discrete area of the brain. These can occur as
interictal activity, between seizures, and represent an area of cortical irritability
that may be predisposed to producing epileptic seizures. Interictal discharges
are not wholly reliable for determining whether a patient has epilepsy nor where
his/her seizure might originate. (See focal epilepsy.)
Generalized epileptiform discharges often have an anterior maximum, but these
are seen synchronously throughout the entire brain. They are strongly
suggestive of a generalized epilepsy.
Focal non-epileptiform abnormal activity may occur over areas of the brain
where there is focal damage of the cortex or white matter. It often consists of an
increase in slow frequency rhythms and/or a loss of normal higher frequency
rhythms. It may also appear as focal or unilateral decrease in amplitude of the
EEG signal.
Diffuse non-epileptiform abnormal activity may manifest as diffuse abnormally
slow rhythms or bilateral slowing of normal rhythms, such as the PBR.
Intracortical Encephalogram electrodes and sub-dural electrodes can be used in
tandem to discriminate and discretize artifact from epileptiform and other severe
neurological events.
More advanced measures of abnormal EEG signals have also recently received
attention as possible biomarkers for different disorders such as Alzheimer's
disease.

Various uses
The EEG has been used for many purposes besides the conventional uses of
clinical diagnosis and conventional cognitive neuroscience. An early use was
during World War II by the U.S. Army Air Corps to screen out pilots in danger of
having seizures; long-term EEG recordings in epilepsy patients are still used
today for seizure prediction. Neurofeedback remains an important extension, and
in its most advanced form is also attempted as the basis of brain computer
interfaces. The EEG is also used quite extensively in the field of neuromarketing.
Honda is attempting to develop a system to enable an operator to control its
Asimo robot using EEG, a technology it eventually hopes to incorporate into its
automobiles.58
EEGs have been used as evidence in trials in the Indian state of Maharastra.59

EEG and Remote Communication

The United States Army Research Office budgeted $4 million in 2009 to
researchers at the University of California, Irvine to develop EEG processing
techniques to identify correlates of imagined speech and intended direction to
enable soldiers on the battlefield to communicate via computer-mediated
reconstruction of team members' EEG signals, in the form of understandable
signals such as words.60

Low-cost EEG Devices

Inexpensive EEG devices exist for the low-cost research and consumer markets.
Recently, a few companies have miniaturized medical grade EEG technology to
create versions accessible to the wider public. Some of these companies have
even built commercial EEG devices retailing for less than $100 USD.
In 2004 OpenEEG released its ModularEEG as open source hardware.
Compatible open source software includes a game for balancing a ball.
In 2007 NeuroSky released the first affordable consumer based EEG along with
the game NeuroBoy. This was also the first large scale EEG device to use dry
sensor technology.
In 2008 OCZ Technology developed device for use in video games relying
primarily on electromyography.
In 2008 the Final Fantasy developer Square Enix announced that it was
partnering with NeuroSky to create a game, Judecca.

58Mind over matter: Brain waves control Asimo 1 Apr 2009, Japan Times
59This brain test maps the truth 21 Jul 2008, 0348 hrs IST, Nitasha Natu,TNN
60MURI: Synthetic Telepathy. Cnslab.ss.uci.edu. Retrieved 2011-07-19.

In 2009 Mattel partnered with NeuroSky to release the Mindflex, a game that
used an EEG to steer a ball through an obstacle course. By far the best selling
consumer based EEG to date.
In 2009 Uncle Milton Industries partnered with NeuroSky to release the
StarWars Force Trainer, a game designed to create the illusion of possessing The
Force.
In 2009 Emotiv released the EPOC, a 14 channel EEG device. The EPOC is the
first commercial BCI to not use dry sensor technology, requiring users to apply a
saline solution to electrode pads (which need remoistening after an hour or two
of use).
In 2010, NeuroSky added a blink and electromyography function to the
MindSet.
In 2011, NeuroSky released the MindWave, an EEG device designed for
educational purposes and games. The MindWave won the Guinness Book of
World Records award for Heaviest machine moved using a brain control
interface.
In 2012, a Japanese gadget project, neurowear, released Necomimi: a headset
with motorized cat ears. The headset is a NeuroSky MindWave unit with two
motors on the headband where a cat's ears might be. Slipcovers shaped like cat
ears sit over the motors so that as the device registers emotional states the ears
move to relate. For example, when relaxed, the ears fall to the sides and perk up
when excited again.

Images
External links
Tanzer Oguz I., (2006) Numerical Modeling in Electro- and
Magnetoencephalography, Ph.D. Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology,
Finland.
A tutorial on simulating and estimating EEG sources in Matlab
A tutorial on analysis of ongoing, evoked, and induced neuronal activity: Power
spectra, wavelet analysis, and coherence
Scholarpedia EEG
FASTER A fully automated, unsupervised method for processing of high density
EEG data. FASTER has been peer-reviewed, it is free and the software is open
source. The FASTER software is available here.
Video demonstration of placement of electrodes

OpenEEG The OpenEEG project makes hardware plans and software for do-ityourself EEG devices in an Open Source manner. The hardware is aimed toward
amateurs who would like to experiment with EEG.
[1] Canadian association of EEG techs (CAET)

Electromagnetic radiation and health

Electromagnetic radiation can be classified into two types: ionizing radiation and
non-ionizing radiation, based on its capability of ionizing atoms and breaking
chemical bonds. Ultraviolet and higher frequencies, such as X-rays or gamma
rays are ionizing, and these pose their own special hazards: see radiation and
radiation poisoning. Non-ionizing radiation, discussed here, is associated with
electrical and biological hazards.

Types of hazards
Electrical hazards
Very strong radiation can induce current capable of delivering an electric shock
to persons or animals. It can also overload and destroy electrical equipment. The
induction of currents by oscillating magnetic fields is also the way in which solar
storms disrupt the operation of electrical and electronic systems, causing
damage to and even the explosion of power distribution transformers,61 blackouts
(as occurred in 1989), and interference with electromagnetic signals (e.g. radio,
TV, and telephone signals).62

Fire hazards
Extremely high power electromagnetic radiation can cause electric currents
strong enough to create sparks (electrical arcs) when an induced voltage
exceeds the breakdown voltage of the surrounding medium (e.g. air). These
sparks can then ignite flammable materials or gases, possibly leading to an
explosion.
This can be a particular hazard in the vicinity of explosives or pyrotechnics, since
an electrical overload might ignite them. This risk is commonly referred to as
HERO (Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance). MIL-STD-464A
mandates assessment of HERO in a system, but Navy document OD 30393
provides design principles and practices for controlling electromagnetic hazards
to ordnance.
61http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/storms.html
62Transcript of "Blackout: The Sun-Earth Connection", Part 4: When Solar Plasma Distorts
Earth's Magnetic Field

On the other hand, the risk related to fueling is known as HERF (Hazards of
Electromagnetic Radiation to Fuel). NAVSEA OP 3565 Vol. 1 could be used to
evaluate HERF, which states a maximum power density of 0.09 W/m for
frequencies under 225 MHz (i.e. 4.2 meters for a 40 W emitter).

Biological hazards
The best understood biological effect of electromagnetic fields is to cause
dielectric heating. For example, touching or standing around an antenna while a
high-power transmitter is in operation can cause severe burns. These are exactly
the kind of burns that would be caused inside a microwave oven.
This heating effect varies with the power and the frequency of the
electromagnetic energy. A measure of the heating effect is the specific
absorption rate or SAR, which has units of watts per kilogram (W/kg). The IEEE
and many national governments have established safety limits for exposure to
various frequencies of electromagnetic energy based on SAR, mainly based on
ICNIRP Guidelines, which guard against thermal damage.
There are publications which support the existence of complex biological effects
of weaker non-thermal electromagnetic fields (see Bioelectromagnetics),
including weak ELF magnetic fields and modulated RF and microwave fields.
Fundamental mechanisms of the interaction between biological material and
electromagnetic fields at non-thermal levels are not fully understood.
A 2009 study at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that intermittent
(but not continuous) exposure of human cells to a 50 Hz electromagnetic field at
a flux density of 1 mT (or 10 G) induced a slight but significant increase of DNA
fragmentation in the Comet assay. However that level of exposure is already
above current established safety exposure limits.

Positions of governments and scientific bodies

World Health Organization
In May 2011, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer published
a review of the evidence on health risks of electromagnetic fields (EMFs),
concluding that there was limited evidence that cellphone users might be at
increased risk of glioma and acoustic neuroma, and that there was inadequate
evidence of any other health risks posed by EMF.63 This designation as "possibly
carcinogenic" has often been misinterpreted as indicating that of some measure
of risk has been observed; the designation indicates that the possibility could not
be conclusively ruled out using the available data.

63(free, registration required)

Health Canada
"There is no conclusive evidence of any harm caused by exposures [to electric
and magnetic fields] at levels found in Canadian homes and schools, including
those located just outside the boundaries of power line corridors."

U.S. military definition

In Federal Standard 1037C, the United States government adopts the following
definition:
Electromagnetic radiation hazards (RADHAZ or EMR hazards): Hazards
caused by a transmitter/antenna installation that generates electromagnetic
radiation in the vicinity of ordnance, personnel, or fueling operations in excess
of established safe levels or increases the existing levels to a hazardous level;
or a personnel, fueling, or ordnance installation located in an area that is
illuminated by electromagnetic radiation at a level that is hazardous to the
planned operations or occupancy. These hazards will exist when an
electromagnetic field of sufficient intensity is generated to: (a) induce or
otherwise couple currents or voltages large enough to initiate electroexplosive
devices or other sensitive explosive components of weapon systems, ordnance,
or explosive devices; (b) cause harmful or injurious effects to humans and
wildlife; (c) create sparks having sufficient magnitude to ignite flammable
mixtures of materials that must be handled in the affected area. Department
of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms

Electric power transmission

The preponderance of evidence suggests that the low-power, low-frequency,
electromagnetic radiation associated with household current does not constitute
a short or long term health hazard, and although some biophysical mechanisms
for the promotion of cancer have been proposed (such as the electric fields
around power lines attracting aerosol pollutants6465), none have been
substantiated. Nevertheless, some research has reported correlation with a
number of adverse health effects, although controversy can include whether
observed correlation implies causation. These include, but are not limited to,
childhood leukemia, adult leukemia,66 neurodegenerative diseases (such as
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis),67 miscarriage,686970 and Alzheimer's disease.71
Some research has found no relationship with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
Parkinson's disease, or multiple sclerosis.

Mitigation
One response to the potential dangers of overhead power lines is to place them
underground. The earth and enclosures surrounding underground cables prevent
the electric field from radiating significantly beyond the power lines, and greatly
reduce the magnetic field strength radiating from the power lines, into the
surrounding area.72 However, the cost of burying and maintaining cables at
transmission voltages is several times greater than overhead power lines. 73

Leukemia and cancer

64(primary source)
65(primary source)
66(primary source)
67(primary source)
68(primary source)
69(primary source)
70(primary source)
71(primary source)
72UK National Grid EMF information site
73See Electric power transmission#Underground transmission for details and references.

Suggesting no significant link

In 1997 the National Cancer Institute (NCI) released a report published in the
New England Journal of Medicine, the result of a seven-year epidemiological
investigation. The study investigated 638 children with acute lymphoblastic
leukemia (ALL) and 620 controls and concluded that their study provided "little
evidence that living in homes characterized by high measured time-weighted
average magnetic-field levels or by the highest wire-code category increases the
risk of ALL in children." Following the report, the US Department of Energy
disbanded the EMF Research and Public Information Dissemination (RAPID)
Program, saying that its services were no longer needed.
In 2005, the Canadian Federal-Provincial-Territorial Radiation Protection
Committee said, "The outcome of a recently conducted pooled analysis of several
epidemiological studies shows a two-fold increase in the risk of leukemia in
children living in homes, where the average magnetic field levels are greater
than 0.4 microtesla (4 milligauss). [However,] it is the opinion of [this committee]
that the epidemiological evidence to date is not strong enough to justify a
conclusion that EMFs in Canadian homes, regardless of locations from power
lines, cause leukemia in children."
The World Health Organization issued a fact sheet, No. 322, in June, 2007 based
on the findings of a WHO work group (2007), the IARC (2002) and the ICNIRP
(2003), which reviewed research conducted since the earlier publication. The
fact sheet says "that there are no substantive health issues related to ELF
electric fields at levels generally encountered by members of the public." For
ELF magnetic fields, the fact sheet says, "the evidence related to childhood
leukaemia is not strong enough to be considered causal", and "[as regards] other
childhood cancers, cancers in adults, ... The WHO Task Group concluded that
scientific evidence supporting an association between ELF magnetic field
exposure and all of these health effects is much weaker than for childhood
leukaemia. In some instances (i.e., for ... breast cancer) the evidence suggests
that these fields do not cause them."
According to Dr. Lakshmikumar at the National Physical Laboratory, India, a
direct, causal, link between RF radiation and cancer (including leukemia) would
require one to be "willing to discard Planck's Law and the entire body of
quantum physics."
In 2010, Maslanyj et al., applying the Bradford-Hill criteria to available evidence,
considered the application of low-cost exposure reduction measures as
appropriate precautionary responses to "small and uncertain public health risks".
Even after pooling all the data, they found it fell short of establishing "strength of
association, dose-response relationship, biological plausibility and coherence,
and analogy". They recognised that controversy would continue so long as other
interpretations of the data were possible.

Suggesting a significant link

In 2001, Ahlbom et al. conducted a review into EMFs and Health, and found that
there was a doubling in childhood leukemia for magnetic fields of over 0.4 T,
but said that it "... may be partly due to bias. This is difficult to interpret in the
absence of a known mechanism or reproducible experimental support."
In 2002 a study by Michelozzi et al. found a relationship between leukemia and
proximity to the Vatican Radio station transmitters although "the study has
limitations because of the small number of cases and the lack of exposure data."
In 2005 Draper et al. found a 70% increase in childhood leukemia for those living
within 200 metres (656 ft) of an overhead transmission line, and a 23% increase
for those living between 200 and 600 metres (656 and 1,969 ft). The authors
concluded that "the relation may be due to chance or confounding." The authors
considered it unlikely that the increase from 200 m to 600 m is related to
magnetic fields as they are well below 0.4 T at this distance. Bristol University
(UK) has published work on a theory that could account for this increase, and
would also provide a potential mechanism, being that the electric fields around
power lines attract aerosol pollutants.

Other findings
The World Health Organisation issued Factsheet No. 263 in October 2001 on ELF
(Extremely low frequency) EMFs and cancer. It said that they were "possibly
carcinogenic", based primarily on IARC's similar evaluation with respect to
childhood leukemia. It also said that there was "insufficient" data to draw any
conclusions on other cancers. The WHO later noted that result had been based
on evidence which was "weakened by methodological problems" and that "on
balance, the evidence related to childhood leukaemia is not strong enough to be
considered causal."
In 2007, the UK Health Protection Agency produced a paper showing that 43% of
homes with magnetic fields of over 0.4 T are associated with overground or
underground circuits of 132 kV and above.

UK SAGE report
The UK Department of Health set up the Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF
EMFs (SAGE) to explore the implications and to make recommendations for a
precautionary approach to power frequency electric and magnetic fields in light
of any evidence of a link between EMF and childhood leukemia. The first interim
assessment of this group was released in April 2007 , and found that the link
between proximity to power lines and childhood leukemia was sufficient to
warrant a precautionary recommendation, including an option to lay new power
lines underground where possible and to prevent the building of new residential
buildings within 60 m (197 ft) of existing power lines. The latter of these options
was not an official recommendation to government as the cost-benefit analysis
based on the increased risk for childhood leukemia alone was considered
insufficient to warrant it. The option was considered necessary for inclusion as, if
found to be real, the weaker association with other health effects would make it
worth implementing.74

Mobile telephones
Mobile phone radiation and health concerns have been raised, especially
following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony
throughout the world (as of August 2005[2], there were more than 2 billion users
worldwide). Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave
range, and someWikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) believe this
may be harmful to human health. These concerns have induced a large body of
research (both epidemiological and experimental, in non-human animals as well
as in humans). Concerns about effects on health have also been raised regarding
other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks.
The World Health Organization, based upon the consensus view of the scientific
and medical communities, states that health effects (e.g. headaches or promotion
of cancer) are unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations, and
expects to make recommendations about mobile phones in the third quarter of
2010 at the earliest, or the first quarter of 2011 at the latest75Wikipedia:Manual
of Style/Dates and numbers#Precise language.

External links
Information page on electromagnetic fields at the World Health Organization
web site
Biological Effects of Power Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields (May 1989)
(over 100 pages)
74"SAGE first interim assessment: Power Lines and Property, Wiring in Homes, and Electrical
Equipment in Homes"
75Health and Environment - Science Milestones

CDC - Electric and Mangetic Fields - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic

Electromyography
Electromyography
Intervention
ICD-9-CM

93.08

MeSH

D004576

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording the

electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles.76 EMG is performed using an
instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an
electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated
by muscle cells when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. The
signals can be analyzed to detect medical abnormalities, activation level,
recruitment order or to analyze the biomechanics of human or animal movement.

Electrical characteristics
The electrical source is the muscle membrane potential of about 90 mV.77
Measured EMG potentials range between less than 50 V and up to 20 to 30 mV,
depending on the muscle under observation.
Typical repetition rate of muscle motor unit firing is about 720 Hz, depending
on the size of the muscle (eye muscles versus seat (gluteal) muscles), previous
axonal damage and other factors. Damage to motor units can be expected at
ranges between 450 and 780 mV.[citation needed]

76Kamen, Gary. Electromyographic Kinesiology. In Robertson, DGE et al. Research Methods in

Biomechanics. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publ., 2004.
77Nigg B.M., & Herzog W., 1999. Biomechanics of the Musculo-Skeletal system. Wiley. Page:349.

History
The first documented experiments dealing with EMG started with Francesco
Redis works in 1666. Redi discovered a highly specialized muscle of the electric
ray fish (Electric Eel) generated electricity. By 1773, Walsh had been able to
demonstrate that the eel fishs muscle tissue could generate a spark of
electricity. In 1792, a publication entitled De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu
Musculari Commentarius appeared, written by Luigi Galvani, in which the author
demonstrated that electricity could initiate muscle contraction. Six decades later,
in 1849, Emil du Bois-Reymond discovered that it was also possible to record
electrical activity during a voluntary muscle contraction. The first actual
recording of this activity was made by Marey in 1890, who also introduced the
term electromyography. In 1922, Gasser and Erlanger used an oscilloscope to
show the electrical signals from muscles. Because of the stochastic nature of the
myoelectric signal, only rough information could be obtained from its
observation. The capability of detecting electromyographic signals improved
steadily from the 1930s through the 1950s, and researchers began to use
improved electrodes more widely for the study of muscles. Clinical use of surface
EMG (sEMG) for the treatment of more specific disorders began in the 1960s.
Hardyck and his researchers were the first (1966) practitioners to use sEMG. In
the early 1980s, Cram and Steger introduced a clinical method for scanning a
variety of muscles using an EMG sensing device.
It is not until the middle of the 1980s that integration techniques in electrodes
had sufficiently advanced to allow batch production of the required small and
lightweight instrumentation and amplifiers. At present, a number of suitable
amplifiers are commercially available. In the early 1980s, cables that produced
signals in the desired microvolt range became available. Recent research has
resulted in a better understanding of the properties of surface EMG recording.
Surface electromyography is increasingly used for recording from superficial
muscles in clinical or kinesiological protocols, where intramuscular electrodes
are used for investigating deep muscles or localized muscle activity.
There are many applications for the use of EMG. EMG is used clinically for the
diagnosis of neurological and neuromuscular problems. It is used diagnostically
by gait laboratories and by clinicians trained in the use of biofeedback or
ergonomic assessment. EMG is also used in many types of research laboratories,
including those involved in biomechanics, motor control, neuromuscular
physiology, movement disorders, postural control, and physical therapy.

Procedure
There are two kinds of EMG in widespread use: surface EMG and intramuscular
(needle and fine-wire) EMG. To perform intramuscular EMG, a needle electrode
or a needle containing two fine-wire electrodes is inserted through the skin into
the muscle tissue. A trained professional (such as a neurologist, physiatrist,
chiropractor, or physical therapist) observes the electrical activity while
inserting the electrode. Certain places limit the performance of needle EMG by
non-physicians. A recent case ruling in the state of New Jersey declared that it
cannot be delegated to a physician's assistant.787980 The insertional activity
provides valuable information about the state of the muscle and its innervating
nerve. Normal muscles at rest make certain, normal electrical signals when the
needle is inserted into them. Then the electrical activity when the muscle is at
rest is studied. Abnormal spontaneous activity might indicate some nerve and/or
muscle damage. Then the patient is asked to contract the muscle smoothly. The
shape, size, and frequency of the resulting electrical signals are judged. Then the
electrode is retracted a few millimetres, and again the activity is analyzed until
at least 1020 motor units have been collected. Each electrode track gives only a
very local picture of the activity of the whole muscle. Because skeletal muscles
differ in the inner structure, the electrode has to be placed at various locations to
obtain an accurate study.
Intramuscular EMG may be considered too invasive or unnecessary in some
cases. Instead, a surface electrode may be used to monitor the general picture of
muscle activation, as opposed to the activity of only a few fibres as observed
using an intramuscular EMG. This technique is used in a number of settings; for
example, in the physiotherapy clinic, muscle activation is monitored using
surface EMG and patients have an auditory or visual stimulus to help them know
when they are activating the muscle (biofeedback).
A motor unit is defined as one motor neuron and all of the muscle fibers it
innervates. When a motor unit fires, the impulse (called an action potential) is
carried down the motor neuron to the muscle. The area where the nerve contacts
the muscle is called the neuromuscular junction, or the motor end plate. After
the action potential is transmitted across the neuromuscular junction, an action
potential is elicited in all of the innervated muscle fibers of that particular motor
unit. The sum of all this electrical activity is known as a motor unit action
potential (MUAP). This electrophysiologic activity from multiple motor units is
the signal typically evaluated during an EMG. The composition of the motor unit,
the number of muscle fibres per motor unit, the metabolic type of muscle fibres
and many other factors affect the shape of the motor unit potentials in the
myogram.
Nerve conduction testing is also often done at the same time as an EMG to
diagnose neurological diseases.
78Arthur C. Rothman, MD, v. Selective Insurance Company of America, Supreme Court of New
Jersey, Jan. 19
79Texas Court of Appeals, Third District, at Austin, Cause No. 03-10-673-CV. April 5, 2012
80Section 333.17018 Michigan Compiled Laws http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-333-17018

Some patients can find the procedure somewhat painful, whereas others
experience only a small amount of discomfort when the needle is inserted. The
muscle or muscles being tested may be slightly sore for a day or two after the
procedure.

Normal results
Muscle tissue at rest is normally electrically inactive. After the electrical activity
caused by the irritation of needle insertion subsides, the electromyograph should
detect no abnormal spontaneous activity (i.e., a muscle at rest should be
electrically silent, with the exception of the area of the neuromuscular junction,
which is, under normal circumstances, very spontaneously active). When the
muscle is voluntarily contracted, action potentials begin to appear. As the
strength of the muscle contraction is increased, more and more muscle fibers
produce action potentials. When the muscle is fully contracted, there should
appear a disorderly group of action potentials of varying rates and amplitudes (a
complete recruitment and interference pattern).

Abnormal results
EMG is used to diagnose diseases that generally may be classified into one of the
following categories: neuropathies, neuromuscular junction diseases and
myopathies.
Neuropathic disease has the following defining EMG characteristics:
An action potential amplitude that is twice normal due to the increased number
of fibres per motor unit because of reinnervation of denervated fibres
An increase in duration of the action potential
A decrease in the number of motor units in the muscle (as found using motor
unit number estimation techniques)
Myopathic disease has these defining EMG characteristics:
A decrease in duration of the action potential
A reduction in the area to amplitude ratio of the action potential
A decrease in the number of motor units in the muscle (in extremely severe
cases only)
Because of the individuality of each patient and disease, some of these
characteristics may not appear in every case.

Abnormal results may be caused by the following medical conditions (please note
this is nowhere near an exhaustive list of conditions that can result in abnormal
EMG studies):

Alcoholic neuropathy
Amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis
Anterior compartment
syndrome of the lower leg
Axillary nerve
dysfunction
Becker's muscular
dystrophy
Brachial plexopathy
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Centronuclear myopathy
Cervical spondylosis
Charcot-Marie-Tooth
disease

Duchenne muscular
dystrophy
Facioscapulohumeral
muscular dystrophy
(Landouzy-Dejerine)

Myotubular myopathy
Neuromyotonia
Peripheral neuropathy
Poliomyelitis

Familial periodic
paralysis

Polymyositis

Femoral nerve
dysfunction

Sciatic nerve dysfunction

Radial nerve dysfunction

Fields condition [3]

Sensorimotor
polyneuropathy

Friedreich's ataxia

Sleep bruxism

Guillain-Barre

Spinal stenosis

Lambert-Eaton Syndrome Thyrotoxic periodic

Mononeuritis multiplex paralysis
Mononeuropathy

Tibial nerve dysfunction

Ulnar nerve dysfunction

Chronic Immune
Motor neurone disease
Demyelinating
Multiple system atrophy
Poly[radiculo]neuropathy
Myasthenia gravis
(CIDP)
Common peroneal nerve Myopathy (muscle
degeneration, which may
dysfunction
be caused by a number of
Denervation (reduced
disorders, including
nervous stimulation)
muscular dystrophy)
Dermatomyositis
Distal median nerve
dysfunction

EMG signal decomposition

EMG signals are essentially made up of superimposed motor unit action
potentials (MUAPs) from several motor units. For a thorough analysis, the
measured EMG signals can be decomposed into their constituent MUAPs. MUAPs
from different motor units tend to have different characteristic shapes, while
MUAPs recorded by the same electrode from the same motor unit are typically
similar. Notably MUAP size and shape depend on where the electrode is located
with respect to the fibers and so can appear to be different if the electrode
moves position. EMG decomposition is non-trivial, although many methods have
been proposed.

Applications of EMG
EMG signals are used in many clinical and biomedical applications. EMG is used
as a diagnostics tool for identifying neuromuscular diseases, assessing low-back
pain, kinesiology, and disorders of motor control. EMG signals are also used as a
control signal for prosthetic devices such as prosthetic hands, arms, and lower
limbs.
EMG can be used to sense isometric muscular activity where no movement is
produced. This enables definition of a class of subtle motionless gestures to
control interfaces without being noticed and without disrupting the surrounding
environment. These signals can be used to control a prosthesis or as a control
signal for an electronic device such as a mobile phone or PDA.
EMG then acceleromyograph may be used for neuromuscular monitoring in
general anesthesia with neuromuscular-blocking drugs, in order to avoid
postoperative residual curarization (PORC).81828384
EMG signals have been targeted as control for flight systems. The Human Senses
Group at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA seeks to advance
man-machine interfaces by directly connecting a person to a computer. In this
project, an EMG signal is used to substitute for mechanical joysticks and
keyboards. EMG has also been used in research towards a "wearable cockpit,"
which employs EMG-based gestures to manipulate switches and control sticks
necessary for flight in conjunction with a goggle-based display.

81Harvey AM, Masland RL: Actions of durarizing preparations in the human. Journal of
Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics, Vol. 73, Issue 3, 304-311, 1941
82Botelho SY: Comparison of simultaneously recorded electrical and mechanical activity in
myasthenia gravis patients and in partially curarized normal humans. Am J Med. 1955
Nov;19(5):693-6. PMID 13268466
83Christie TH, Churchill-Davidson HC: The St. Thomas's Hospital nerve stimulator in the
diagnosis of prolonged apnoea. Lancet. 1958 Apr 12;1(7024):776. PMID 13526270
84Engbaek J, Ostergaard D, Viby-Mogensen J: Double burst stimulation (DBS): a new pattern of
nerve stimulation to identify residual neuromuscular block. Br J Anaesth. 1989 Mar;62(3):274-8.
PMID 2522790

Unvoiced speech recognition recognizes speech by observing the EMG activity of

muscles associated with speech. It is targeted for use in noisy environments, and
may be helpful for people without vocal cords and people with aphasia.
EMG has also been used as a control signal for computers and other devices. An
interface device based on EMG could be used to control moving objects, such as
mobile robots or an electric wheelchair.85 This may be helpful for individuals that
cannot operate a joystick-controlled wheelchair. Surface EMG recordings may
also be a suitable control signal for some interactive video games.86
A joint project involving Microsoft, the University of Washington in Seattle, and
the University of Toronto in Canada has explored using muscle signals from hand
gestures as an interface device. A patent based on this research was submitted
on June 26, 2008.

Low-cost EMG Devices

Inexpensive EMG devices exist for low-cost research and consumer markets.
Recently, a few companies have simplified and miniaturized EMG technology to
create versions accessible to the public for below $100 USD.
In 2011 Advancer Technologies developed a simple, single-lead EMG PCB
(printed circuit board) that can be used to convert raw electrical signals from
muscle contraction to a rectified, smoothed, output signal.

External links
Association of Electromyography Technologists of Canada (AETC)
MedlinePlus entry on EMG describes EMG
Neuromuscular.edu
American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine

85Andreasen, DS.; Gabbert DG,: EMG Switch Navigation of Power Wheelchairs, RESNA 2006. [4]
86Park, DG.; Kim, HC. Muscleman: Wireless input device for a fighting action game based on the
EMG signal and acceleration of the human forearm. [5]

Electrophysiology
Electrophysiology (from Greek , lektron, "amber" [see the etymology
of "electron"]; , physis, "nature, origin"; and -, -logia) is the study of
the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues. It involves measurements
of voltage change or electric current on a wide variety of scales from single ion
channel proteins to whole organs like the heart. In neuroscience, it includes
measurements of the electrical activity of neurons, and particularly action
potential activity. Recordings of large-scale electric signals from the nervous
system such as electroencephalography, may also be referred to as
electrophysiological recordings.

Definition and scope

Classical electrophysiological techniques
Electrophysiology is the science and branch of physiology that pertains to the
flow of ions in biological tissues and, in particular, to the electrical recording
techniques that enable the measurement of this flow. Classical electrophysiology
techniques involve placing electrodes into various preparations of biological
tissue. The principal types of electrodes are:
1. simple solid conductors, such as discs and needles (singles or arrays, often
insulated except for the tip),
2. tracings on printed circuit boards, also insulated except for the tip, and
3. hollow tubes filled with an electrolyte, such as glass pipettes filled with
potassium chloride solution or another electrolyte solution.
The principal preparations include:
1. living organisms,
2. excised tissue (acute or cultured),
3. dissociated cells from excised tissue (acute or cultured),
4. artificially grown cells or tissues, or
5. hybrids of the above.

If an electrode is small enough (micrometers) in diameter, then the

electrophysiologist may choose to insert the tip into a single cell. Such a
configuration allows direct observation and recording of the intracellular
electrical activity of a single cell. However, at the same time such invasive setup
reduces the life of the cell and causes a leak of substances across the cell
membrane. Intracellular activity may also be observed using a specially formed
(hollow) glass pipette containing an electrolyte. In this technique, the
microscopic pipette tip is pressed against the cell membrane, to which it tightly
adheres by an interaction between glass and lipids of the cell membrane. The
electrolyte within the pipette may be brought into fluid continuity with the
cytoplasm by delivering a pulse of negative pressure to the pipette in order to
rupture the small patch of membrane encircled by the pipette rim (whole-cell
recording). Alternatively, ionic continuity may be established by "perforating" the
patch by allowing exogenous pore-forming agent within the electrolyte to insert
themselves into the membrane patch (perforated patch recording). Finally, the
patch may be left intact (patch recording).
The electrophysiologist may choose not to insert the tip into a single cell.
Instead, the electrode tip may be left in continuity with the extracellular space. If
the tip is small enough, such a configuration may allow indirect observation and
recording of action potentials from a single cell, and is termed single-unit
recording. Depending on the preparation and precise placement, an extracellular
configuration may pick up the activity of several nearby cells simultaneously, and
this is termed multi-unit recording.
As electrode size increases, the resolving power decreases. Larger electrodes are
sensitive only to the net activity of many cells, termed local field potentials. Still
larger electrodes, such as uninsulated needles and surface electrodes used by
clinical and surgical neurophysiologists, are sensitive only to certain types of
synchronous activity within populations of cells numbering in the millions.
Other classical electrophysiological techniques include single channel recording
and amperometry.

Optical electrophysiological techniques

Optical electrophysiological techniques were created by scientists and engineers
to overcome one of the main limitations of classical techniques. Classical
techniques allow observation of electrical activity at approximately a single point
within a volume of tissue. Essentially, classical techniques singularize a
distributed phenomenon. Interest in the spatial distribution of bioelectric activity
prompted development of molecules capable of emitting light in response to their
electrical or chemical environment. Examples are voltage sensitive dyes and
fluorescing proteins. After introducing one or more such compounds into tissue
via perfusion, injection or gene expression, the 1 or 2-dimensional distribution of
electrical activity may be observed and recorded.
Many particular electrophysiological readings have specific names:
Electrocardiography - for the heart

Electroencephalography - for the brain

Electrocorticography - from the cerebral cortex
Electromyography - for the muscles
Electrooculography - for the eyes
Electroretinography - for the retina
Electroantennography - for the olfactory receptors in arthropods
Audiology - for the auditory system

Intracellular recording
Intracellular recording involves measuring voltage and/or current across the
membrane of a cell. To make an intracellular recording, the tip of a fine (sharp)
microelectrode must be inserted inside the cell, so that the membrane potential
can be measured. Typically, the resting membrane potential of a healthy cell will
be -60 to -80 mV, and during an action potential the membrane potential might
reach +40 mV. In 1963, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley won the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contribution to understanding the
mechanisms underlying the generation of action potentials in neurons. Their
experiments involved intracellular recordings from the giant axon of Atlantic
squid (Loligo pealei), and were among the first applications of the "voltage
clamp" technique. Today, most microelectrodes used for intracellular recording
are glass micropipettes, with a tip diameter of < 1 micrometre, and a resistance
of several megaohms. The micropipettes are filled with a solution that has a
similar ionic composition to the intracellular fluid of the cell. A chlorided silver
wire inserted in to the pipet connects the electrolyte electrically to the amplifier
and signal processing circuit. The voltage measured by the electrode is
compared to the voltage of a reference electrode, usually a silver chloride-coated
silver wire in contact with the extracellular fluid around the cell. In general, the
smaller the electrode tip, the higher its electrical resistance, so an electrode is a
compromise between size (small enough to penetrate a single cell with minimum
damage to the cell) and resistance (low enough so that small neuronal signals
can be discerned from thermal noise in the electrode tip).

Voltage clamp
The voltage clamp technique allows an experimenter to "clamp" the cell potential
at a chosen value. This makes it possible to measure how much ionic current
crosses a cell's membrane at any given voltage. This is important because many
of the ion channels in the membrane of a neuron are voltage-gated ion channels,
which open only when the membrane voltage is within a certain range. Voltage
clamp measurements of current are made possible by the near-simultaneous
digital subtraction of transient capacitive currents that pass as the recording
electrode and cell membrane are charged to alter the cell's potential.

Current clamp
The current clamp technique records the membrane potential by injecting
current into a cell through the recording electrode. Unlike in the voltage clamp
mode, where the membrane potential is held at a level determined by the
experimenter, in "current clamp" mode the membrane potential is free to vary,
and the amplifier records whatever voltage the cell generates on its own or as a
result of stimulation. This technique is used to study how a cell responds when
electric current enters a cell; this is important for instance for understanding
how neurons respond to neurotransmitters that act by opening membrane ion
channels.
Most current-clamp amplifiers provide little or no amplification of the voltage
changes recorded from the cell. The "amplifier" is actually an electrometer,
sometimes referred to as a "unity gain amplifier"; its main job is to change the
nature of small signals (in the mV range) produced by cells so that they can be
accurately recorded by low-impedance electronics. The amplifier increases the
current behind the signal while decreasing the resistance over which that
current passes. Consider this example based on Ohm's law: A voltage of 10 mV is
generated by passing 10 nanoamperes of current across 1 M of resistance. The
electrometer changes this "high impedance signal" to a "low impedance signal"
by using a voltage follower circuit. A voltage follower reads the voltage on the
input (caused by a small current through a big resistor). It then instructs a
parallel circuit that has a large current source behind it (the electrical mains)
and adjusts the resistance of that parallel circuit to give the same output voltage,
but across a lower resistance.

The patch-clamp technique

This technique was developed by Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann who received
the Nobel Prize in 1991.87 Conventional intracellular recording involves impaling
a cell with a fine electrode; patch-clamp recording takes a different approach. A
patch-clamp microelectrode is a micropipette with a relatively large tip diameter.
The microelectrode is placed next to a cell, and gentle suction is applied through
the microelectrode to draw a piece of the cell membrane (the 'patch') into the
microelectrode tip; the glass tip forms a high resistance 'seal' with the cell
membrane. This configuration is the "cell-attached" mode, and it can be used for
studying the activity of the ion channels that are present in the patch of
membrane. If more suction is now applied, the small patch of membrane in the
electrode tip can be displaced, leaving the electrode sealed to the rest of the cell.
This "whole-cell" mode allows very stable intracellular recording. A disadvantage
(compared to conventional intracellular recording with sharp electrodes) is that
the intracellular fluid of the cell mixes with the solution inside the recording
electrode, and so some important components of the intracellular fluid can be
diluted. A variant of this technique, the "perforated patch" technique, tries to
minimise these problems. Instead of applying suction to displace the membrane
patch from the electrode tip, it is also possible to make small holes on the patch
with pore-forming agents so that large molecules such as proteins can stay inside
the cell and ions can pass through the holes freely. Also the patch of membrane
can be pulled away from the rest of the cell. This approach enables the
membrane properties of the patch to be analysed pharmacologically.

Sharp electrode technique

In situations where one wants to record the potential inside the cell membrane
with minimal effect on the ionic constitution of the intracellular fluid a sharp
electrode can be used. These micropipettes (electrodes) are again like those for
patch clamp pulled from glass capillaries, but the pore is much smaller so that
there is very little ion exchange between the intracellular fluid and the
electrolyte in the pipette. The resistance of the micropipette electrode is tens or
hundreds of M. Often the tip of the electrode is filled with various kinds of dyes
like Lucifer yellow to fill the cells recorded from, for later confirmation of their
morphology under a microscope. The dyes are injected by applying a positive or
negative, DC or pulsed voltage to the electrodes depending on the polarity of the
dye.

Extracellular recording

87Nobel prize Medicine 1991

Single-unit recording
An electrode introduced into the brain of a living animal will detect electrical
activity that is generated by the neurons adjacent to the electrode tip. If the
electrode is a microelectrode, with a tip size of about 1 micrometre, the
electrode will usually detect the activity of at most one neuron. Recording in this
way is in general called "single-unit" recording. The action potentials recorded
are very much like the action potentials that are recorded intracellularly, but the
signals are very much smaller (typically about 1 mV). Most recordings of the
activity of single neurons in anesthetized and conscious animals are made in this
way. Recordings of single neurons in living animals have provided important
insights into how the brain processes information. For example, David Hubel and
Torsten Wiesel recorded the activity of single neurons in the primary visual
cortex of the anesthetized cat, and showed how single neurons in this area
respond to very specific features of a visual stimulus. Hubel and Wiesel were
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981.88
If the electrode tip is slightly larger, then the electrode might record the activity
generated by several neurons. This type of recording is often called "multi-unit
recording", and is often used in conscious animals to record changes in the
activity in a discrete brain area during normal activity. Recordings from one or
more such electrodes that are closely spaced can be used to identify the number
of cells around it as well as which of the spikes come from which cell. This
process is called spike sorting and is suitable in areas where there are identified
types of cells with well defined spike characteristics. If the electrode tip is bigger
still, in general the activity of individual neurons cannot be distinguished but the
electrode will still be able to record a field potential generated by the activity of
many cells.

Field potentials
Extracellular field potentials are local current sinks or sources that are
generated by the collective activity of many cells. Usually, a field potential is
generated by the simultaneous activation of many neurons by synaptic
transmission. The diagram to the right shows hippocampal synaptic field
potentials. At the right, the lower trace shows a negative wave that corresponds
to a current sink caused by positive charges entering cells through postsynaptic
glutamate receptors, while the upper trace shows a positive wave that is
generated by the current that leaves the cell (at the cell body) to complete the
circuit. For more information, see local field potential.

88Nobel prize Medicine 1981

Amperometry
Amperometry uses a carbon electrode to record changes in the chemical
composition of the oxidized components of a biological solution. Oxidation and
reduction is accomplished by changing the voltage at the active surface of the
recording electrode in a process known as "scanning". Because certain brain
chemicals lose or gain electrons at characteristic voltages, individual species can
be identified. Amperometry has been used for studying exocytosis in the nervous
and endocrine systems. Many monoamine neurotransmitters; e.g.,
norepinephrine (noradrenalin), dopamine, and serotonin (5-HT) are oxidizable.
The method can also be used with cells that do not secrete oxidizable
neurotransmitters by "loading" them with 5-HT or dopamine.

Planar patch clamp

Planar patch clamp is a novel method developed for high throughput
electrophysiology.89 Instead of positioning a pipette on an adherent cell, cell
suspension is pipetted on a chip containing a microstructured aperture.

Schematic drawing of the classical patch clamp configuration. The patch pipette is moved to the cell
using a micromanipulator under optical control. Relative movements between the pipette and the cell
have to be avoided in order to keep the cell-pipette connection intact.

89http://www.nanion.de/pdf/PlanarPatchClamping.pdf

In planar patch configuration the cell is positioned by suction relative movements between cell and
aperture can then be excluded after sealing. An Antivibration table is not necessary.

Scanning electron microscope image of a patch pipette

Scanning electron microscope image of a planar patch clamp chip. Both the pipette and the chip are
made from borosilicate glass.

A single cell is then positioned on the hole by suction and a tight connection
(Gigaseal) is formed. The planar geometry offers a variety of advantages
compared to the classical experiment:
It allows for integration of microfluidics, which enables automatic compound
application for ion channel screening.
The system is accessible for optical or scanning probe techniques.
Perfusion of the intracellular side can be performed.

Other methods
Solid-supported membrane (SSM) based
With this electrophysiological approach, proteoliposomes, membrane vesicles, or
membrane fragments containing the channel or transporter of interest are
adsorbed to a lipid monolayer painted over a functionalized electrode. This
electrode consists of a glass support, a chromium layer, a gold layer, and an
octadecyl mercaptane monolayer. Because the painted membrane is supported
by the electrode, it is called a solid-supported membrane. It is important to note
that mechanical perturbations, which usually destroy a biological lipid
membrane, do not influence the life-time of an SSM. The capacitive electrode
(composed of the SSM and the absorbed vesicles) is so mechanically stable that
solutions may be rapidly exchanged at its surface. This property allows the
application of rapid substrate/ligand concentration jumps to investigate the
electrogenic activity of the protein of interest, measured via capacitive coupling
between the vesicles and the electrode.

Bioelectric recognition assay (BERA)

The bioelectric recognition assay (BERA) is a novel method for determination of
various chemical and biological molecules by measuring changes in the
membrane potential of cells immobilized in a gel matrix. Apart from the
increased stability of the electrode-cell interface, immobilization preserves the
viability and physiological functions of the cells. BERA is used primarily in
biosensor applications in order to assay analytes that can interact with the
immobilized cells by changing the cell membrane potential. In this way, when a
positive sample is added to the sensor, a characteristic, signature-like change in
electrical potential occurs. BERA has been used for the detection for human
viruses (Hepatitis B and C viruses, herpes viruses) and veterinary disease agents
(foot and mouth disease virus, prions, blue tongue virus) and plants (tobacco and
cucumber viruses) in a highly specific, rapid (12 minutes), reproducible and
cost-efficient fashion. The method has also been used for the detection of
environmental toxins, such as herbicides and the determination of very low
concentrations of superoxide anion in clinical samples.
A recent advance in the evolution of the BERA technology is the development of
a technique called molecular identification through membrane engineering
(MIME). This technique allows for building cells with absolutely defined
specificity for virtually any molecule of interest, by embedding thousand of
artificial receptors into the cell membrane.

Computational electrophysiology
While strictly not constituting an experimental measurement, methods have been
developed to examine the conductive properties of proteins and biomembranes
in silico. These are mainly molecular dynamics simulations in which a model
system like a lipid bilayer is subjected to an externally applied voltage. Studies
using these setups have been able to study dynamical phenomena like
electroporation of membranes and ion translocation by channels.
The benefit of such methods is the high level of detail of the active conduction
mechanism, given by the inherently high resolution and data density that
atomistic simulation affords. There are significant drawbacks, given by the
uncertainty of the legitimacy of the model and the computational cost of
modeling systems that are large enough and over sufficient timescales to be
considered reproducing the macroscopic properties of the systems themselves.
While atomistic simulations may access timescales close to, or into the
microsecond domain, this is still several orders of magnitude lower than even the
resolution of experimental methods such as patch-clamping.[citation needed]

Reporting guidelines for electrophysiology

experiments
Minimum Information (MI) standards or reporting guidelines specify the
minimum amount of meta data (information) and data required to meet a specific
aim or aims. Usually the aim is to provide enough meta data and data to enable
the unambiguous reproduction and interpretation of an experiment. MI
guidelines are normally informal human readable specifications that inform the
development of formal data models (e.g. XML or UML), data exchange formats
(e.g. FuGE, MAGE-ML, MAGE-TAB) or knowledge models such as an ontology
(e.g. OBI, MGED-Ontology).
The Minimum Information about a Neuroscience investigation (MINI) family of
reporting guideline documents, produced by community consultation and
continually available for public comment aims to provide a consistent set of
guidelines in order to report an electrophysiology experiment. A MINI module
represents the minimum information that should be reported about a dataset to
facilitate computational access and analysis to allow a reader to interpret and
critically evaluate the processes performed and the conclusions reached, and to
support their experimental corroboration. In practice a MINI module comprises a
checklist of information that should be provided (for example about the protocols
employed) whena data set is described for publication. The full specification of
the MINI module can be found here.

External links
Book chapter on Planar Patch Clamp
Device description
EP Lab Digest - Trade Publication for EP Professionals
European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA)

Kirlian photography
Kirlian photography is a collection of photographic techniques used to capture
the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges. It is named after Semyon
Kirlian, who, in 1939 accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic
plate is connected to a high-voltage source, an image is produced on the
photographic plate.90 The technique has been variously known as
"electrography", "electrophotography", "corona discharge photography" (CDP),
"bioelectrography", "gas discharge visualization (GDV)", "eletrophotonic imaging
(EPI)", and, in Russian literature, "Kirlianography".
90Julie McCarron-Benson in Skeptical - a Handbook of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, ed
Donald Laycock, David Vernon, Colin Groves, Simon Brown, Imagecraft, Canberra, 1989, ISBN 07316-5794-2, p11

Kirlian photography has been the subject of mainstream scientific research,

parapsychology research and art. To a large extent, It has been co-opted by
promoters of pseudoscience, fringe science and paranormal health claims in
books, magazines, workshops, and web sites.

History
In 1889, Czech B. Navratil coined the word "electrography". Seven years later in
1896, a French experimenter, H. Baravuc, created electrographs of hands and
leaves.
In 1898, Russian engineer Yakov Narkevich-Iodko91 demonstrated electrography
at the fifth exhibition of the Russian Technical Society.
In 1939, two Czechs, S. Pratt and J. Schlemmer published photographs showing a
glow around leaves. The same year, Russian electrical engineer Semyon Kirlian
and his wife Valentina developed Kirlian photography after observing a patient in
Krasnodar hospital who was receiving medical treatment from a high-frequency
electrical generator. They had noticed that when the electrodes were brought
near the patient's skin, there was a glow similar to that of a Neon Discharge
Tube.92
The Kirlians conducted experiments in which photographic film was placed on
top of a conducting plate, and another conductor was attached to the a hand, a
leaf or other plant material. The conductors were energized by a high frequency
high voltage power source, producing photographic images typically showing a
silhouette of the object surrounded by an aura of light.
In 1958, the Kirlians reported the results of their experiments for the first time.
Their work was virtually unknown until 1970, when two Americans, Lynn
Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander published a book, Psychic Discoveries Behind
the Iron Curtain. Although little interest was generated among western
scientists, Russians held a conference on the subject in 1972, at Kazakh State
University.

91Alternatively transliterated Narkevich-Yodko. It is spelled Narkevich-Todko in some sources; In

Russian: -. Some sources state that he was Polish, rendering his name Jacob
Jodko-Narkiewicz
92Kirlian, S. D. (1949) Method for Receiving Photographic Pictures of Different Types of Objects,
Patent, N106401 USSR.

Kirlian photography was used extensively in the former Eastern Bloc. For
example, in the 1970s, Romania had 14,000 state-sponsored scientists working
on the technique. The corona discharge glow at the surface of an object
subjected to a high voltage electrical field is referred to as a Kirlian aura in
Russia and Eastern Europe,9394 however this should not to be confused with the
paranormal concept of the aura. In 1975 Belarusian scientist Victor Adamenko
wrote a dissertation titled Research of the structure of High-frequency electric
discharge (Kirlain effect) images.9596 The scientific study of Kirlian effect in
Kazakhstan State University has performed Victor Inyushin. 9798
Early in the 1970s, Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson at the Center for Health
Sciences at the UCLA conducted extensive research into Kirlian photography.
Moss led an independent and unsupported parapsychology laboratory99 that was
shut down by the university in 1979.
Kirlian's research first became known in the United States after Shelia
Ostrander's and Lynn Schroeder's book "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron
Curtain" was published in 1970. High voltage electrophotography soon became
known to the general public as Kirlian Photography.

Overview

Typical Kirlian photography setup (cross section)

Typical Kirlian photography setup
(cross section)

Kirlian photography is a technique for creating contact print photographs using

high voltage. The process entails placing sheet photographic film on top of a
metal discharge plate. The object to be photographed is then placed directly on
top of the film. High voltage is momentarily applied to the metal plate, thus
creating an exposure. The corona discharge between the object and the high
voltage plate is captured by the film. The developed film results in a Kirlian
photograph of the object.

93Antonov, A., Yuskesselieva, L. (1985) Selective High Frequency Discharge (Kirlian effect), Acta
Hydrophysica, Berlin, p. 29.
94Juravlev, A. E. (1966) Living Luminescence and Kirlian effect, Academy of Science in USSR.
95Adamenko, V. G. (1972) Objects Moved at a Distance by Means of a Controlled Bioelectric
Field, In Abstracts,International Congress of Psychology, Tokyo.
96Kulin, E. T. (1980) Bioelectrical Effects, Science and Technology, Minsk.
97Petrosyan, V., I., et al. (1996) Bioelectrical Discharge, Biomedical Radio-Engineering and
Electronics, 3.
98Inyushin, V. M., Gritsenko, V. S. (1968) The Biological Essence of Kirlian effect, Alma Ata,
Kazakhstan, State University.
99Thelma Moss, The Body Electric, New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc., 1979.

Color photographic film is calibrated to faithfully produce colors when exposed

to normal light. Corona discharges can interact with minute variations in the
different layers of dye used in the film, resulting in a wide variety of colors
depending on the local intensity of the discharge. Film and digital imaging
techniques also record light produced by photons emitted during corona
discharge (see Mechanism of corona discharge).
Photographs of inanimate objects such as a coins, keys and leaves can be made
more effectively by grounding the object to the earth, a cold water pipe or to the
opposite (polarity) side of the high voltage source. Grounding the object creates
a stronger corona discharge.
Kirlian photography does not require the use of a camera or a lens because it is a
contact print process. It is possible to use a transparent electrode in place of the
high voltage discharge plate, allowing one to capture the resulting corona
discharge with a standard camera or a video camera.
Visual artists such as Robert Buelteman, Ted Hiebert, and Dick Lane have used
Kirlian photography to produce artistic images of a variety of subjects. Kirlian
Photographer Mark D. Roberts, who has worked with Kirlian imagery for over 40
years, published a portfolio of plant images entitled "Vita occulta plantarum" or
"The Secret Life of Plants", first exhibited in 2012 at the Bakken Museum in
Minneapolis.

Research
Kirlian photography has been a subject of scientific research, parapsychology
research and pseudoscientific claims. There are no clear delineations between
classic scientific research, fringe research, and claims made by promoters of
alternative medicine and the like. Much of the research conducted around the
middle of the 20th century occurred in the former Eastern Bloc before the cold
war ended and has not held up to the scrutiny of stricter Western scientific
standards[citation needed].

Scientific research
Results of scientific experiments published in 1976 involving Kirlian photography
of living tissue (human finger tips) showed that most of the variations in corona
discharge streamer length, density, curvature and color can be accounted for by
the moisture content on the surface of and within the living tissue. Scientists
outside of the US have also conducted scientific research.

Konstantin Korotkov developed a technique similar to Kirlian photography called

Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV).100101102 Korotkov's GDV camera system
consists of hardware and software to directly record, process and interpret GDV
images with a computer. The web site of Korotkov promotes his device and
research in a medical context.103 Izabela Ciesielska at the Institute of
Architecture of Textiles in Poland used Korotov's GDV camera to evaluate the
effects of human contact with various textiles on biological factors such as heart
rate and blood pressure, as well as corona discharge images. The experiments
captured corona discharge images of subjects fingertips while the subjects wore
sleeves of various natural and synthetic materials on their forearms. The results
failed to establish a relationship between human contact with the textiles and the
corona discharge images, and were considered inconclusive.

Parapsychology research
Around the 1970s, interest in paranormal research peaked. In 1968, Dr. Thelma
Moss, a psychology professor headed UCLAs Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI),
which was later renamed the Semel Institute. The NPI had a laboratory
dedicated to parapsychology research and staffed mostly with volunteers. The
lab was unfunded, unsanctioned and eventually shut down by the university.
Toward the end of her tenure at UCLA, Moss became interested in Kirlian
photography, a technique that supposedly measured the auras of a living being.
According to Kerry Gaynor, one of her former research assistants, "many felt
Kirlian photographys effects were just a natural occurrence."

Claims
Kirlian believed that images created by Kirlian photography might depict a
conjectural energy field, or aura, thought, by some, to surround living things.
Kirlian and his wife were convinced that their images showed a life force or
energy field that reflected the physical and emotional states of their living
subjects. They thought these images could be used to diagnose illnesses. In
1961, they published their first paper on the subject in the Russian Journal of
Scientific and Applied Photography. Kirlian's claims were embraced by energy
treatments practitioners.

100Korotkov K.G., Krizhanovsky E.V. et al. (2004) The Dynamic of the Gas Discharge around
Drops of Liquids. In book: Measuring Energy Fields: State of the Science, Backbone Publ.Co.,
Fair Lawn, USA, pp. 103-123.
101Korotkov K., Korotkin D. (2001) Concentration Dependence of Gas Discharge around Drops of
Inorganic Electrolytes, Journal of Applied Physics, 89, 9, pp. 4732-4737.
102Korotkov K. G., Kaariainen P. (1998) GDV Applied for the Study of a Physical Stress in
Sportsmens, Journal of Pathophysiology, Vol. 5., p. 53, Saint Petersburg.
103Katorgin, V. S., Meizerov, E. E. (2000) Actual Questions GDV in Medical Activity, Congress
Traditional Medicine, Federal Scientific Clinical and Experimental Center of Traditional Methods
of Treatment and Diagnosis, Ministry of Health, pp 452-456, Elista, Moscow, Russia.

Torn leaf experiment

A typical demonstration used as evidence for the existence of these energy fields
involved taking Kirlian photographs of a picked leaf at set intervals. The gradual
withering of the leaf was thought to correspond with a decline in the strength of
the aura. In some experiments, if a section of a leaf was torn away after the first
photograph, a faint image of the missing section would sometimes remain when
a second photograph was taken. If the imaging surface is cleaned of
contaminants and residual moisture before the second image is taken, then no
image of the missing section will appear.104
The living aura theory is at least partially repudiated by demonstrating that leaf
moisture content has a pronounced effect on the electric discharge coronas;
more moisture creates larger, more dynamic corona discharges. As the leaf
dehydrates, the coronas will naturally decrease in variability and intensity. As a
result, the changing water content of the leaf can affect the so-called Kirlian
aura. Kirlian's experiments did not provide evidence for an energy field other
than the electric fields produced by chemical processes, and the streaming
process of coronal discharges.
The coronal discharges identified as Kirlian auras are the result of stochastic
electric ionization processes, and are greatly affected by many factors, including
the voltage and frequency of the stimulus, the pressure with which a person or
object touches the imaging surface, the local humidity around the object being
imaged, how well grounded the person or object is, and other local factors
affecting the conductivity of the person or object being imaged. Oils, sweat,
bacteria, and other ionizing contaminants found on living tissues can also affect
the resulting images.105106

Qi
Scientists such as Beverly Rubik have explored the idea of a human biofield
using Kirlian photography research, attempting to explain the Chinese discipline
of Qigong. Qigong teaches that there is a vitalistic energy called qi (or chi) that
permeates all living things. The existence of qi has been mostly rejected by the
scientific community. Rubik's experiments relied on Konstantin Korotkov's GDV
device to produce images which were thought to visualize these qi biofields in
chronically ill patients. Rubik acknowledges that the small sample size in her
experiments "was too small to permit a meaningful statistical analysis." Vitalistic
energies, such as qi and prana, if they exist, would exist beyond the natural
world. Claims that these energies can be captured by special photographic
equipment are criticized by skeptics.
104, derived from:
*
105Opalinski, John, "Kirliantype images and the transport of thinfilm materials in highvoltage
corona discharges", Journal of Applied Physics, Vol 50, Issue 1, pp 498-504, Jan 1979. Abstract:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=5105453
106The Kirlian Technique: Controlling the Wild Cards. The Kirlian effect not only is explainable
by natural processes; it also varies according to at least six physical parameters. Arleen J.
Watkins and Williams S. Bickel, The Skeptical Inquirer 13:172-184, 1989.

In popular culture
The concert program from David Bowie's 1976 Station to Station tour featured
some results of the technique, and in 1975 Bowie claimed to have achieved
markedly different results, using his fingertip and his crucifix, before and after
he took cocaine.107
A 1979 movie called The Kirlian Witness108 featured the phenomenon as a major
plot point.
Italian electronic band Kirlian Camera takes their name from this form of
photography.
The Cluster series of science fiction novels by Piers Anthony center around the
concept of Kirlian transfer, the idea that the Kirlian aura can be transferred from
one physical body to another. High-aura individuals are politically, militarily and
diplomatically valuable, since they can withstand long periods of transfer without
aura degradation.

Further reading
Becker, Robert and Selden, Gary, The Body Electric:Electromagnetism and the
Foundation of Life, (Quill/Williams Morrow, 1985)
Krippner, S. and Rubin, D., Galaxies of Life, (Gordon and Breach, 1973)
Ostrander, S. and Schroeder, L., Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, (PrenticeHall 1970)

External links
Kirlian Photography and the "Aura", Dr. Rory Coker, Professor of Physics at the
University of Texas at Austin
Description of auras and bioenergetic fields, Victor J. Stenger, University of
Hawaii at Manoa
Dr. Ignatovs methodic for Color Coronal (Kirlian) spectral analysis, Sofia,
Bulgaria
Kirlian Effect in the Study of the Properties of Water, Oleg Mosin, Doctor in
Chemistry

107Images reproduced at; http://www.buzzfeed.com/twentyfourbit/david-bowies-kirlian-photobefore-and-after-1wab

108http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077808/

Bioelectrodynamics
Bioelectrodynamics is a branch of biophysics and bioelectromagnetism which
deals with rapidly changing electric and magnetic fields in biological systems,
i.e. high frequency endogenous electromagnetic phenomena in living cells.
Unlike the events studied by the electrophysiology, the generating mechanism of
bioelectrodynamic phenomenon is not connected with currents of ions and its
frequency is typically much higher. Examples include vibrations of electrically
polar intracellular structures and non-thermal emission of photons as a result of
metabolic activity.

Theories and Hypotheses

Plenty of theoretical work was published on theories and hypotheses describing
generation of electromagnetic field by living cells in very broad frequency
range.109110111 The most influential one was once probably the Frhlich's
hypothesis of coherence in biological systems introduced by Herbert Frhlich in
late 1960s.112 Despite the fact that experimental evidence for Frhlich's
hypothesis does not exist yet, numerical estimates indicate biological feasibility
of at least Frhlich's weak condensation.113
Recent theoretical considerations predict generation of radio frequency
electromagnetic field in cells as a result of vibrations of electrically polar
intracellular structures, e. g., microtubules.114 Emission in optical part of
electromagnetic spectrum is usually attributed to reactive oxygen species (ROS).

109Priel A, Tuszynski JA, Cantiello HF (2005). "Electrodynamic signaling by the dendritic

cytoskeleton: toward an intracellular information processing model", Electromagnetic Biology
and Medicine, 24 (3).
110Cifra M (2012). Electrodynamic eigenmodes in cellular morphology BioSystems, 109 (3).
111Uesakaa M, Zhoua S-A (2006). "Bioelectrodynamics in living organisms", International
Journal of Engineering Science, 44 (1-2).
112GJ Hyland and Peter Rowlands (editors) Herbert Frohlich FRS: A Physicist Ahead of his Time.
(University of Liverpool, 2006, 2nd edition 2008.) ISBN 978-0-906370-57-5
113Reimers J et al. (2009). Weak, strong, and coherent regimes of Frhlich condensation and
their applications to terahertz medicine and quantum consciousness PNAS 106 (11).
114Pokorn J, Haek J, Jelnek F (2005). Electromagnetic field of microtubules: Effects on
transfer of mass particles and electrons J. Biol. Phys. 31.

Experimental evidence
Bioelectrodynamic effects were experimentally proven in optical range of
electromagnetic spectrum. Spontaneous emission of photons by living cells, with
intensity significantly higher than corresponds to emission by thermal radiation,
was repeatedly reported by several authors over decades.115 These observations
exhibit experimental simplicity and good reproducibility. Although non-thermal
emission of photons from living cells is generally accepted phenomenon, much
less is known about its origin and properties. On the one hand, it is sometimes
attributed to chemiluminescent metabolic reactions (including for instance
reactive oxygen species (ROS) 116 ), on the other hand, some authors relate this
phenomenon to far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics.[citation needed]
Indirect evidence exists on acoustic and radio frequencies; however, direct
measurement of field quantities is missing. Pohl and others observed force effect
on dielectric particles which were attracted to cells and repulsed from cells,
respectively, depending on particles' dielectric constant.117 Pohl attributed this
behavior to dielectrophoresis caused by electromagnetic field of cells. He
estimated the frequency of this field as about hundreds of MHz. Other indirect
evidence comes from the fact that mechanical vibrations were experimentally
proven in very broad frequency range in cells.118 Since many structures in cells
are electrically polar, they will generate electromagnetic field if they vibrate.119

Controversy
As a question opened for decades, bioelectrodynamics was not always part of
scientific mainstream and thus it was sometimes treated with poor scientific
standards. This is particularly true for:
1. - overestimation of the significance of experimental data obtained (Kucera120
argues that claims by several authors about direct measurement of cellular
electromagnetic activity in radio-frequency band should be accepted with
skepticism since technical properties of experimental setups have not even met
criteria arising from optimistic theoretical biophysical predictions. Firstly, spatial
resolution of used sensors was too low with respect to expected spatial
complexity of electromagnetic field in cells. Secondly, the sensitivity of
experimental setups was not high enough compared to power available in living
cell.),
115Cifra M, Fields JZ, Farhadi A (2011). Electromagnetic cellular interactions Progress in
Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 105 (3).
116Prasad A, Pospisil P (2011) Two-dimensional imaging of spontaneous ultra-weak photon
emission from the human skin: role of reactive oxygen species Journal of Biophotonics, 4 (11-12).
117Pohl HA, Crane JS (1971). Dielectrophoresis of Cells Biophysical Journal 11.
118Kruse K, Juelicher F (2005). Oscillations in cell biology Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 17 (1).
119Kucera O, Havelka D (2005). Mechano-electrical vibrations of microtubulesLink to
subcellular morphology BioSystems 109 (3).
120Kucera O, Cifra M, Porkorny J (2010). Technical aspects of measurement of cellular
electromagnetic activity European Biophysics Journal 39 (10).

2. - miss-interpretation of experimental data (Fritz-Albert Popp's claim about

coherence of photo-emission from cells121 is based on statistical distribution of
photon counts; however, this is not proof of coherence. Coherent emission (see
coherent states) has Poisson distribution, but Poisson distribution is not
exclusively related only to coherent processes.) and
3. - development of uncorroborated hypotheses

[citation needed]

External links
Groups
Department of Bioelectrodynamics, Institute of Photonics and Electronics AS
CR, Czechia

Bioelectrochemistry
Bioelectrochemistry is a branch of electrochemistry and biophysical chemistry
concerned with topics like cell electron-proton transport, cell membrane
potentials and electrode reactions of redox enzymes.

History
The beginnings of bioelectrochemistry, as well as those of electrochemistry, are
closely related to physiology through the works of Luigi Galvani and then
Alessandro Volta. The first modern work in this field is considered that of the
German physiologist Julius Bernstein (1902) concerning the source of
biopotentials due to different ion concentration through the cell's membrane.122
The domain of bioelectrochemistry has grown considerably over the past century,
maintaining the close connections to various medical disciplines. The
achievements in this field have been awarded several Nobel prizes for Physiology
or Medicine. Among prominent electrochemists who have contributed to this
field one could mention John Bockris.

External links
Johann Wilhelm Ritter contribution to the field
University of Potsdam
121Popp FA (1999) About the Coherence of Biophotons 1999 Proceedings of an International
Conference on Macroscopic Quantum Coherence, Boston University.
122Electrochemistry Encyclopedia

Magnetoception
Magnetoception (or magnetoreception as it was first referred to in 1972123) is
a sense which allows an organism to detect a magnetic field to perceive
direction, altitude or location. This sense has been proposed to explain animal
navigation in vertebrates and insects, and as a method for animals to develop
regional maps. For the purpose of navigation, magnetoception deals with the
detection of the Earth's magnetic field.
Magnetoception has been observed in bacteria. It has also been commonly
hypothesized in birds, where sensing of the Earth's magnetic field may be
important to the navigational abilities during migration; insects (including fruit
flies and honeybees); and other animals such as turtles, lobsters, sharks and
stingrays.

Proposed mechanisms
An unequivocal demonstration of the use of magnetic fields for orientation within
an organism has been in a class of bacteria known as magnetotactic bacteria.
These bacteria demonstrate a behavioural phenomenon known as magnetotaxis,
in which the bacteria orients itself and migrates in the direction along the
Earth's magnetic field lines. The bacteria contain magnetosomes, which are
particles of magnetite or iron sulfide enclosed within the bacteria cells. Each
bacterium cell essentially acts as a magnetic dipole. They form in chains where
the moments of each magnetosome align in parallel, giving the bacteria its
permanent-magnet characteristics. These chains are formed symmetrically to
preserve the crystalline structure of the cells.124 These bacteria are said to have
permanent magnetic sensitivity.

123M. LINDAUER & H. MARTIN in S. R. Galler et al. Animal Orientation & Navigation 559/1
124The Magneto-Lab. "Biochemistry and molecular biology of magnetosome formation in
Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense." Available: http://magnum.mpibremen.de/magneto/research/index.html.

For animals the mechanism for magnetoception is unknown, but there exist two
main hypotheses to explain the phenomenon. According to one model,
cryptochrome, when exposed to blue light, becomes activated to form a pair of
two radicals (molecules with a single unpaired electron) where the spins of the
two unpaired electrons are correlated. The surrounding magnetic field affects
the kind of this correlation (parallel or anti-parallel), and this in turn affects the
length of time cryptochrome stays in its activated state. Activation of
cryptochrome may affect the light-sensitivity of retinal neurons, with the overall
result that the bird can "see" the magnetic field.125 The Earth's magnetic field is
only 0.5 Gauss and so it is difficult to conceive of a mechanism by which such a
field could lead to any chemical changes other than those affecting the weak
magnetic fields between radical pairs. Cryptochromes are therefore thought to
be essential for the light-dependent ability of the fruit fly Drosophila
melanogaster to sense magnetic fields.
The second proposed model for magnetoreception relies on Fe3O4, also referred
to as iron (II, III) oxide or magnetite, a natural oxide with strong magnetism. Iron
(II, III) oxide remains permanently magnetized when its length is larger than
50 nm and becomes magnetized when exposed to a magnetic field if its length is
less than 50 nm. In both of these situations the Earth's magnetic field leads to a
transducible signal via a physical effect on this magnetically sensitive oxide.
Another less general type of magnetic sensing mechanism in animals that has
been thoroughly described is the inductive sensing methods used by sharks,
stingrays and chimaeras (cartilaginous fish). These species possess a unique
electroreceptive organ known as ampullae of Lorenzini which can detect a slight
variation in electric potential. These organs are made up of mucus-filled canals
that connect from the skin's pores to small sacs within the animal's flesh that are
also filled with mucus. The ampullae of Lorenzini are capable of detecting DC
currents and have been proposed to be used in the sensing of the weak electric
fields of prey and predators. These organs could also possibly sense magnetic
fields, by means of Faraday's law: as a conductor moves through a magnetic field
an electric potential is generated. In this case the conductor is the animal
moving through a magnetic field, and the potential induced depends on the time
varying rate of flux through the conductor according to
d
V= .
dt
i nd

These organs detect very small fluctuations in the potential difference between
the pore and the base of the electroreceptor sack. An increase in potential
results in a decrease in the rate of nerve activity, and a decrease in potential
results in an increase in the rate of nerve activity. This is analogous to the
behavior of a current carrying conductor; with a fixed channel resistance, an
increase in potential would decrease the amount of current detected, and vice
versa. These receptors are located along the mouth and nose of sharks and
stingrays.

125Cryptochrome and Magnetic Sensing, Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Accessed 13 February 2009

In invertebrates
The mollusc Tochuina tetraquetra (formerly Tritonia diomedea or Tritonia
gigantea) has been studied for clues as to the neural mechanism behind
magnetoreception in a species. Some of the earliest work with Tochuina showed
that prior to a full moon Tochuina would orient their bodies between magnetic
north and east. A Y-maze was established with a right turn equal to geomagnetic
south and a left turn equal to geomagnetic east. Within this geomagnetic field
80% of Tochuina made a turn to the left or magnetic east. However, when a
reversed magnetic field was applied that rotated magnetic north 180 there was
no significant preference for either turn, which now corresponded with magnetic
north and magnetic west. These results, though interesting, do not conclusively
establish that Tochuina uses magnetic fields in magnetoreception. These
experiments do not include a control for the activation of the Rubens coil in the
reversed magnetic field experiments. Therefore, it is possible that heat or noise
generated by the coil was responsible for the loss of choice preference. Further
work with Tochuina was unable to identify any neurons that showed rapid
changes in firing as a result of magnetic fields. However, pedal 5 neurons, two
bisymmetric neurons located within the Tochuina pedal ganglion, exhibited
gradual changes in firing over time following 30 minutes of magnetic stimulation
provided by a Rubens coil. Further studies showed that pedal 7 neurons in the
pedal ganglion were inhibited when exposed to magnetic fields over the course
of 30 minutes. The function of both pedal 5 neurons and pedal 7 neurons is
currently unknown.

Drosophila melanogaster is another invertebrate which may be able to orientate

to magnetic fields. Experimental techniques such as gene knockouts have
allowed a closer examination of possible magnetoreception in these fruit flies.
Various Drosophila strains have been trained to respond to magnetic fields. In a
choice test flies were loaded into an apparatus with two arms that were
surrounded by electric coils. Current was run through each of the coils, but only
one would a 5 Gauss magnetic field at a time. The flies in this T-maze were tested
on their native ability to recognize the presence of the magnetic field in an arm
and on their response following training where the magnetic field was paired
with a sucrose reward. Many of the strains of flies showed a learned preference
for the magnetic field following training. However, when the only cryptochrome
found in Drosophila, type 1 Cry, is altered, either through a missense mutation or
replacement of the Cry gene, the flies exhibit a loss of magnetosensitivity.
Furthermore, when light is filtered to only allow wavelengths greater than
420 nm through, Drosophila loses its trained response to magnetic fields. This
response to filtered light is likely linked to the action spectrum of flycryptochrome which has a range from 350 nm 400 nm and plateaus from 430450 nm. Although researchers had believed that a tryptophan triad in
cryptochrome was responsible for the free radicals on which magnetic fields
could act, recent work with Drosophila has shown that tryptophan might not be
behind cryptochrome dependent magnetoreception. Alteration of the tryptophan
protein does not result in the loss of magnetosensitivity of a fly expressing either
type 1 Cry or the cryptochrome found in vertebrates, type 2 Cry. Therefore it
remains unclear exactly how cryptochrome mediates magnetoreception. These
experiments used a 5 gauss magnetic field, 10 times the strength of the Earth's
magnetic field). Drosophila has not yet been shown to be able to respond to the
Earths weaker magnetic field.

In homing pigeons
Homing pigeons have been known to use magnetic fields as part of their complex
navigation system. Work by William Keeton showed that homing pigeons that
were time shifted were unable to orient themselves correctly on a clear sunny
day. This was considered a result of the fact that homing pigeons who used the
sun for navigation would have to compensate for its movement throughout the
day and a time shifted pigeon would be incapable of doing such compensation
properly. However, if time shifted pigeons were released on overcast day they
navigated correctly. This led to the hypothesis that under particular conditions
homing pigeons rely on magnetic fields to orient themselves. Further
experiments with magnets attached to the backs of homing pigeons
demonstrated that disruption of the birds ability to sense the Earth's magnetic
field leads to a loss of proper orientation behavior under overcast conditions.
There have been two mechanisms implicated in homing pigeon
magnetoreception : the visually mediated free-radical pair mechanism and a
magnetite based directional compass or inclination compass. More recent
behavioral tests have shown that pigeons are able to detect magnetic anomalies
of 186 microtesla (1.86 Gauss).
In a choice test birds were trained to jump on to a platform on one end of a
tunnel if there was no magnetic field present and to jump on to a platform on the
other end of the tunnel if a magnetic field was present. In this test, birds were
rewarded with a food prize and punished with a time penalty. Homing pigeons
were able to make the correct choice 55%-65% of the time which is higher than
what would be expected if the pigeons were simply guessing. The ability of
pigeons to detect a magnetic field is impaired by application of ligocaine, an
anesthetic, to the olfactory mucosa. Furthermore, sectioning the trigeminal
nerve leads to an inability to detect a magnetic field, while sectioning of the
olfactory nerve has no effect on the magnetic sense of homing pigeons. These
results suggest that magnetite located in the beak of pigeons may be responsible
for magnetoreception via trigeminal mediation. However, it has not been shown
that the magnetite located in the beak of pigeons is capable of responding to a
magnetic field with the Earths strength. Therefore the receptor responsible for
magnetosensitivity in homing pigeons has not been cemented.
Aside from the sensory receptor for magnetic reception in homing pigeons there
has been work on neural regions that are possibly involved in the processing of
magnetic information within the brain. Areas of the brain that have shown
increases in activity in response to magnetic fields with a strength of 50 or 150
microtesla are the posterior vestibular nuclei, dorsal thalamus, hippocampus,
and visual hyperpallium.
As previously mentioned, pigeons provided some of the first evidence for the use
of magnetoreception in navigation. As a result, they have been an organism of
focus in magnetoreception studies. The precise mechanism used by pigeons has
not been established and so it is unclear yet whether pigeons rely solely on a
cryptochrome-mediated receptor or on beak-magnetite.

In domestic hens
Domestic hens have iron mineral deposits in the dendrites in the upper beak and
are capable of magnetoreception.126127 Because hens use directional information
from the magnetic field of the earth to orient in relatively small areas, this raises
the possibility that beak-trimming (removal of part of the beak to reduce
injurious pecking frequently performed on egg-laying hens) impairs the ability of
hens to orient in extensive systems, or to move in and out of buildings in freerange systems.128

In mammals
Work with mice, mole rats, and bats has shown that some mammals may be
capable of magnetoception. When woodmice are removed from their home area
and deprived of visual and olfactory cues they seem to orient themselves
correctly towards their homes until an inverted magnetic field is applied to their
cage. When the same mice are allowed access to visual cues however they
demonstrate the ability to orient themselves towards home, despite the presence
of inverted magnetic fields. This seems to suggest that woodmice use magnetic
fields to orient themselves when displaced if there are no other cues available.
However studies such as this have been criticized because of the difficulty of
completely removing sensory cues and the fact that while some of these studies
are done the magnetic field is artificially changed before the test as opposed to
during the test. Due to the timing of the magnetic fields activation the results of
these experiments do not conclusively show that woodmice respond to magnetic
fields when deprived of other cues.

126Falkenberg, G., Fleissner, G., Schuchardt, K., Kuehbacher, M., Thalau, P., Mouritsen, H.,
Heyers, D., Wellenreuther, G. and Fleissner. G., (2010). Avian magnetoreception: Elaborate iron
mineral containing dendrites in the upper beak seem to be a common feature of birds. PLoS ONE
5:e9231
127Wiltschko, W., Freire, R., Munro, U., Ritz, T., Rogers, L.J., Thalau,P., and Wiltschko. R., (2007).
The magnetic compass of domestic chicken, Gallus gallus. Journal Experimental Biology,
210:23002310
128Freire, R., Eastwood, M.A. and Joyce, M., (2011). Minor beak trimming in chickens leads to
loss of mechanoreception and magnetoreception. Journal of Animal Science, 89:12011206

Work with the Zambian mole rat, a subterranean mammal, has led to reports that
they use magnetic fields as a polarity compass to aid in the orientation of their
nests. In contrast to work with woodmice, Zambian mole rats do not exhibit
different orientation behavior when a visual cue such as the sun is present, a
result that has been suggested is due to their subterranean lifestyle. Further
investigation of mole rat magnetoreception lead to the finding that exposure to
magnetic fields leads to an increase in neural activity within the superior
colliculus as measured by immediate early gene expression. The activity level of
neurons within two levels of the superior colliculus, the outer sublayer of the
intermediate gray layer and the deep gray layer, were elevated in a non-specific
manner when exposed to various magnetic fields. However, within the inner
sublayer of the intermediate gray layer (InGi) there were two or three clusters of
responsive cells. The more time the mole rats were exposed to a magnetic field
the greater the immediate early gene expression within the InGi. However, if
Zambian mole rats were placed in a field with a shielded magnetic field only a
few scattered cells were active. Therefore it has been proposed that in mammals
the superior colliculus is an important neural structure in the processing of
magnetic information.
Bats also seem to utilize magnetic fields in orienting themselves. While bats have
been known to utilize echolocation to undergo navigation over short-distances it
is unclear what they use to navigate over longer distances. When Eptesicus
fuscus are taken from their home roosts and exposed to magnetic fields 90
degrees clockwise or counterclockwise of magnetic north, they are disoriented
and set off for their homes in the wrong direction. Therefore, it seems that
Eptesicus fuscus is capable of magnetosensation. However, the exact use of
magnetic fields in Eptesicus fuscus is unclear as the magnetic field could be
being used either as a map, a compass, or a compass calibrator. Recent work
with another bat species, Myotis myotis, supports the idea that bats use
magnetic fields as a compass calibrator, and their primary compass is the sun.

There is evidence for magnetoreception in large mammals. Resting and grazing

cattle as well as roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus)
tend to align their body axes in the geomagnetic North-South (N-S) direction.129
Because wind, sunshine, and slope could be excluded as common ubiquitous
factors in this study, alignment toward the vector of the magnetic field provided
the most likely explanation for the observed behaviour. However, because of the
descriptive nature of this study, alternative explanations (e.g., the sun compass)
could not be excluded. In a follow-up study, researchers analyzed body
orientations of ruminants in localities where the geomagnetic field is disturbed
by high-voltage power lines to determine how local variation in magnetic fields
may affect orientation behaviour. This was done by using satellite and aerial
images of herds of cattle and field observations of grazing roe deer. Body
orientation of both species was random on pastures under or near power lines.
Moreover, cattle exposed to various magnetic fields directly beneath or in the
vicinity of power lines trending in various magnetic directions exhibited distinct
patterns of alignment. The disturbing effect of the power lines on body alignment
diminished with the distance from the conductors.130

In humans
Magnetic bones have been found in the human nose, specifically the
sphenoidal/ethmoid sinuses Beginning in the late 1970s, the group of Robin
Baker at the University of Manchester began to conduct experiments that
purported to exhibit magnetoception in humans: people were disoriented and
then asked about certain directions; their answers were more accurate if there
was no magnet attached to their head. Other scientists have maintained they
could not reproduce these results. A 2007 study found some other evidence for
human magnetoception has been put forward: low-frequency magnetic fields can
produce an evoked response in the brains of human subjects.
Magnetoception in humans has also been achieved by magnetic implants [citation
needed]
and by non-permanently attached artificial sensory "organs".131 However,
these exercises do little to demonstrate that humans are innately capable of
magnetoreception.
Additionally, a magnetosensitive protein, cryptochrome-2, has been found in the
human eye. Given the lack of knowledge as to how cryptochrome mediates
magnetosensitivity in Drosophila, it is unclear whether the cryptochrome found
in humans functions in the same way and can be used for magnetoception.

129Begall, S., Cerveny, J., Neef, J., Vojtech, O. and Burda, H., (2008). Magnetic alignment in
grazing and resting cattle and deer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 105: 1345113455
130Burda, H., Begalla, S., erven, J., Neefa, J. and Nmecd, P., (2009). Extremely low-frequency
electromagnetic fields disrupt magnetic alignment of ruminants. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 106:
57085713
131The feelSpace Project

Issues
The largest issue affecting verification of an animal magnetic sense is that
despite more than 40 years of work on magnetoception there has yet to be an
identification of a sensory receptor. Given that the entire receptor system could
likely fit in a one-millimeter cube and have a magnetic content of less than one
ppm, it is difficult to discern the parts of the brain where this information is
processed. In various organisms a cryptochrome mediated receptor has been
implicated in magnetoception. At the same time a magnetite system has been
found to be relevant to magnetosensation in birds. Furthermore, it is possible
that both of these mechanisms play a role in magnetic field detection in animals.
This dual mechanism theory in birds raises the questions, if such a mechanism is
actually responsible for magnetoception, to what degree is each method
responsible for stimulus transduction, and how do they lead to a tranducible
signal given a magnetic field with the Earths strength.
The precise purpose of magnetoception in animal navigation is unclear. Some
animals appear to use their magnetic sense as a map, compass, or compass
calibrator. The compass method allows animals not only to find north, but also to
maintain a constant heading in a particular direction. Although the ability to
sense direction is important in migratory navigation, many animals also have the
ability to sense small fluctuations in earths magnetic field to compute coordinate
maps with a resolution of a few kilometers or better. For example birds such as
the homing pigeon are believed to use the magnetite in their beaks to detect
magnetic signposts and thus, the magnetic sense they gain from this pathway is
a possible map. Yet, it has also been suggested that homing pigeons and other
birds use the visually mediated cryptochrome receptor as a compass.
The purpose of magnetoception in birds and other animals may be varied, but
has proved difficult to study, and evidence remains weak. Numerous studies use
magnetic fields larger than the Earths field. Studies such as of Tritonia have
used electrophysiological recordings from only one or two neurons, and many
others have been solely correlational.[citation needed]

External links
Cryptochrome and magnetic sensing, Theoretical and Biophysical Computations
Group, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign
Schiff H (1991). "Modulation of spike frequencies by varying the ambient
magnetic field and magnetite candidates in bees (Apis mellifera)". Comp
Biochem Physiol a Comp Physiol 100 (4): 97585. doi: 10.1016/03009629(91)90325-7. PMID 1685393.
Johnsen S, Lohmann KJ (September 2005). "The physics and neurobiology of
magnetoreception". Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6 (9): 70312. doi:
10.1038/nrn1745. PMID 16100517.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve

stimulation
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
Intervention

A four-lead TENS unit.

MeSH

D004561

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is the use of electric

current produced by a device to stimulate the nerves for therapeutic purposes.
TENS by definition covers the complete range of transcutaneously applied
currents used for nerve excitation although the term is often used with a more
restrictive intent, namely to describe the kind of pulses produced by portable
stimulators used to treat pain.132 The unit is usually connected to the skin using
two or more electrodes. A typical battery-operated TENS unit is able to modulate
pulse width, frequency and intensity. Generally TENS is applied at high
frequency (>50 Hz) with an intensity below motor contraction (sensory intensity)
or low frequency (<10 Hz) with an intensity that produces motor contraction.
The benefit of TENS for pain is controversial.

Medical uses
Pain
TENS is a non-invasive, low-risk nerve stimulation intended to reduce pain, both
acute and chronic. One review from 2007 felt that the evidence supports a
benefit in chronic musculoskeletal pain while another review from the Cochrane
Collaboration in 2008 deemed the evidence of poor quality and thus no
conclusions were possible regarding chronic pain. Results from a task force on
neck pain, in 2008, found no clinically significant benefit to TENS for the
treatment of neck pain when compared to placebo treatment. A 2010 review did
not find evidence to support the use of TENS for chronic low back pain. There is
tentative evidence that it may be useful for painful diabetic neuropathy.

132Robertson

An adequate intensity of stimulation is necessary to achieve pain relief with

TENS. An analysis of treatment fidelity (meaning that the delivery of TENS in a
trial was in accordance with current clinical advice, such as using "a strong but
comfortable sensation" and suitable, frequent treatment durations) showed that
higher fidelity trials tended to have a positive outcome.
A few studies have shown objective evidence that TENS may modulate or
suppress pain signals in the brain. One used evoked cortical potentials to show
that electric stimulation of peripheral A-beta sensory fibers reliably suppressed
A-delta fiber nociceptive processing. Two other studies used functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI): one showed that high-frequency TENS produced a
decrease in pain-related cortical activations in patients with carpal tunnel
syndrome, while the other showed that low-frequency TENS decreased shoulder
impingement pain and modulated pain-induced activation in the brain.

Labor pain
A significant number of TENS machine brands have been targeted for use for
labor pain, although a 1997 report of a study done by the University of Oxford
said that TENS "has been shown not to be effective in postoperative and labor
pain." Use is documented in the attached references: in obstetric care,
particularly in labor;

History
Electrical stimulation for pain control was used in ancient Rome, 63 A.D. It was
reported by Scribonius Largus that pain was relieved by standing on an electrical
fish at the seashore. In the 16th through the 18th century various electrostatic
devices were used for headache and other pains. Benjamin Franklin was a
proponent of this method for pain relief. In the nineteenth century a device
called the electreat, along with numerous other devices were used for pain
control and cancer cures. Only the electreat survived into the twentieth century,
but was not portable, and had limited control of the stimulus.[citation needed]

Modern
The first modern, patient-wearable TENS was patented in the United States in
1974.133 It was initially used for testing the tolerance of chronic pain patients to
electrical stimulation before implantation of electrodes in the spinal cord dorsal
column. The electrodes were attached to an implanted receiver, which received
its power from an antenna worn on the surface of the skin. Although intended
only for testing tolerance to electrical stimulation, many of the patients said they
received so much relief from the TENS itself that they never returned for the
implant.
A number of companies began manufacturing TENS units after the commercial
success of the Medtronic device became known. The neurological division of
Medtronic, founded by Don Maurer, Ed Schuck and Dr. Charles Ray, developed a
number of applications for implanted electrical stimulation devices for treatment
of epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and other disorders of the nervous system.
Today many people confuse TENS with Electro Muscle Stimulation (EMS). EMS
and TENS devices look similar, with both using long electric lead wires and
electrodes. TENS is for blocking pain, where EMS is for stimulating muscles.

Safety
There are several locations where TENS electrodes are contraindicated:
Over the eyes due to the risk of increasing intraocular pressure
Transcerebrally
On the front of the neck due to the risk of an acute hypotension (through a
vasovagal reflex) or even a laryngospasm
Through the chest using an anterior and posterior electrode positions, or other
transthoracic applications understood as "across a thoracic diameter"; this does
not preclude coplanar applications
Internally, except for specific applications of dental, vaginal, and anal
stimulation that employ specialized TENS units
On broken skin areas or wounds, although it can be placed around wounds.134
Over a tumour/malignancy (based on in vitro experiments where electricity
promotes cell growth)
Directly over the spinal column

133Maurer, D "Transcutaneous stimulator and stimulation method" , Publication date June 18,
1974
134

TENS used across an artificial cardiac pacemaker (or other indwelling

stimulator, including across its leads) may cause interference and failure of the
implanted device. Serious accidents have been recorded in cases when this
principle was not observed. A 2009 review in this area suggests that
electrotherapy, including TENS, "are best avoided" in patients with pacemakers
or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs). They add that "there is no
consensus and it may be possible to safely deliver these modalities in a proper
setting with device and patient monitoring", and recommend further research.
The review found several reports of ICDs administering inappropriate treatment
due to interference with TENS devices, but notes that the reports on pacemakers
are mixed: some non-programmable pacemakers were inhibited by TENS, but
others were unaffected or auto-reprogrammed.
On areas of numb skin/decreased sensation the use of TENS is likely less to be
effective due to nerve damage. It may also cause skin irritation due to the
inability to feel currents until they are too high. There's an unknown level of risk
when placing electrodes over an infection (possible spreading due to muscle
contractions), but cross contamination with the electrodes themselves is of
greater concern.135 TENS should also be used with caution in people with
epilepsy or pregnant women; do not use over area of the uterus as the effects of
electrical stimulation over the developing fetus are not known.136137

References
Books cited
Robertson, Valma J.; Alex Ward, John Low, Ann Reed (2006). Electrotherapy
Explained: Principles and Practice (4th ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann (Elsevier).
ISBN 978-0-7506-8843-7.
Watson, Tim (2008). Electrotherapy: evidence-based practice (12th ed.).
Elsevier Health Sciences. ISBN 0443101795.

Further reading
Cekmen N, Salman B, Keles Z, Aslan M, Akcabay M (Feb 2007).
"Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in the prevention of postoperative
nausea and vomiting after elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy". J Clin Anesth
19 (1): 4952. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2006.05.025. PMID 17321927.
135Robertson, p. 160
136
137Watson, p. 265

Gan LS, Prochazka A, Bornes TD, Denington AA, Chan KM (Mar 2007). "A new
means of transcutaneous coupling for neural prostheses". IEEE Trans Biomed
Eng 54 (3): 50917. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2006.886664. PMID 17355064.
Ozawa M, Tsuchiyama K, Gomi R, Kurosaki F, Kawamoto Y, Aiba S (Dec 2006).
"Neuroselective transcutaneous electric stimulation reveals body area-specific
differences in itch perception". American Academy of Dermatology 55 (6): 996
1002. doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2006.08.032. PMID 17097397.
Vrbov G, Hudlicka O, Schaefer Centofanti K (2008). Application of
Muscle/Nerve Stimulation in Health and Disease. Springer. ISBN 978-1-40208232-0.

Radiobiology
Radiobiology (also known as radiation biology), as a field of clinical and basic
medical sciences, originated from Leopold Freund's 1896 demonstration of the
therapeutic treatment of a hairy mole using a new type of electromagnetic
radiation called x-rays, which was discovered 1 year previously by the German
physicist, Wilhelm Rntgen. At the same time, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered
the radioactive polonium and radium later used to treat cancer. In simplest
terms, radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiation on living
things.

Health effects
Ionizing radiation is generally harmful and potentially lethal to living things but
can have health benefits in radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer and
thyrotoxicosis. Its most common impact is the induction of cancer with a latent
period of years or decades after exposure. High doses can cause visually
dramatic radiation burns, and/or rapid fatality through acute radiation syndrome.
Controlled doses are used for medical imaging and radiotherapy. Some scientists
suspect that low doses may have a mild hormetic effect that can improve health.
Some effects of ionizing radiation on human health are stochastic, meaning that
their probability of occurrence increases with dose, while the severity is
independent of dose. Radiation-induced cancer, teratogenesis, cognitive decline,
and heart disease are all examples of stochastic effects. Other conditions such as
radiation burns, acute radiation syndrome, chronic radiation syndrome, and
radiation-induced thyroiditis are deterministic, meaning they reliably occur
above a threshold dose, and their severity increases with dose. Deterministic
effects are not necessarily more or less serious than stochastic effects; either can
ultimately lead to a temporary nuisance or a fatality.
Other effects include radiation-induced lung injury, cataracts, and infertility.

Quantitative data on the effects of ionizing radiation on human health is

relatively limited compared to other medical conditions because of the low
number of cases to date, and because of the stochastic nature of some of the
effects. Stochastic effects can only be measured through large epidemiological
studies where enough data has been collected to remove confounding factors
such as smoking habits and other lifestyle factors. The richest source of highquality data comes from the study of Japanese atomic bomb survivors. In vitro
and animal experiments are informative, but radioresistance varies greatly
across species.
The consensus of the nuclear industry, regulators and governments regarding
radiation health effects is expressed by the International Commission on
Radiological Protection. (ICRP) Other important organizations studying the topic
include
International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU)
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR)
US National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP)
UK Public Health England
US National Academy of Sciences (NAS through the BEIR studies)
French Institut de radioprotection et de sret nuclaire (IRSN)
European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR)

Exposure Pathways
External
External exposure is exposure which occurs when the radioactive source (or
other radiation source) is outside (and remains outside) the organism which is
exposed. Examples of external exposure include:
A person who places a sealed radioactive source in his pocket
A space traveller who is irradiated by cosmic rays
A person who is treated for cancer by either teletherapy or brachytherapy.
While in brachytherapy the source is inside the person it is still considered
external exposure because it does not result in a committed dose.
A nuclear worker whose hands have been dirtied with radioactive dust.
Assuming that his hands are cleaned before any radioactive material can be
absorbed, inhaled or ingested, skin contamination is considered external
exposure.

External exposure is relatively easy to estimate, and the irradiated organism

does not become radioactive, except for a case where the radiation is an intense
neutron beam which causes activation.

Internal
Internal exposure occurs when the radioactive material enters the organism, and
the radioactive atoms become incorporated into the organism. This can occur
through inhalation, ingestion, or injection. Below are a series of examples of
internal exposure.
The exposure caused by potassium-40 present within a normal person.
The exposure to the ingestion of a soluble radioactive substance, such as
cows' milk.

89

Sr in

A person who is being treated for cancer by means of a radiopharmaceutical

where a radioisotope is used as a drug (usually a liquid or pill). A review of this
topic was published in 1999. Because the radioactive material becomes
intimately mixed with the affected object it is often difficult to decontaminate the
object or person in a case where internal exposure is occurring. While some very
insoluble materials such as fission products within a uranium dioxide matrix
might never be able to truly become part of an organism, it is normal to consider
such particles in the lungs and digestive tract as a form of internal contamination
which results in internal exposure.
Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) involves injecting a boron-10 tagged
chemical that preferentially binds to tumor cells. Neutrons from a nuclear
reactor are shaped by a neutron moderator to the neutron energy spectrum
suitable for BNCT treatment. The tumor is selectively bombarded with these
neutrons. The neutrons quickly slow down in the body to become low energy
thermal neutrons. These thermal neutrons are captured by the injected boron-10,
forming excited (boron-11) which breaks down into lithium-7 and a helium-4
alpha particle both of these produce closely spaced ionizing radiation.This
concept is described as a binary system using two separate components for the
therapy of cancer. Each component in itself is relatively harmless to the cells, but
when combined together for treatment they produce a highly cytocidal
(cytotoxic) effect which is lethal (within a limited range of 5-9 micrometers or
approximately one cell diameter). Clinical trials, with promising results, are
currently carried out in Finland and Japan.
When radioactive compounds enter the human body, the effects are different
from those resulting from exposure to an external radiation source. Especially in
the case of alpha radiation, which normally does not penetrate the skin, the
exposure can be much more damaging after ingestion or inhalation. The
radiation exposure is normally expressed as a committed dose.

History
Although radiation was discovered in late 19th century, the dangers of
radioactivity and of radiation were not immediately recognized. Acute effects of
radiation were first observed in the use of X-rays when Wilhelm Rntgen
intentionally subjected his fingers to X-rays in 1895. He published his
observations concerning the burns that developed, though he misattributed them
to ozone, a free radical produced in air by X-rays. Other free radicals produced
within the body are now understood to be more important. His injuries healed
later.
The genetic effects of radiation, including the effects on cancer risk, were
recognized much later. In 1927 Hermann Joseph Muller published research
showing genetic effects, and in 1946 was awarded the Nobel prize for his
findings.
Before the biological effects of radiation were known, many physicians and
corporations had begun marketing radioactive substances as patent medicine
and radioactive quackery. Examples were radium enema treatments, and
radium-containing waters to be drunk as tonics. Marie Curie spoke out against
this sort of treatment, warning that the effects of radiation on the human body
were not well understood. Curie later died of aplastic anemia caused by radiation
poisoning. Eben Byers, a famous American socialite, died of multiple cancers
(but not acute radiation syndrome) in 1932 after consuming large quantities of
radium over several years; his death drew public attention to dangers of
radiation. By the 1930s, after a number of cases of bone necrosis and death in
enthusiasts, radium-containing medical products had nearly vanished from the
market.
In the United States, the experience of the so-called Radium Girls, where
thousands[citation needed] of radium-dial painters contracted oral cancers (but no
cases of acute radiation syndrome), popularized the warnings of occupational
health associated with radiation hazards. Robley D. Evans, at MIT, developed the
first standard for permissible body burden of radium, a key step in the
establishment of nuclear medicine as a field of study. With the development of
nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons in the 1940s, heightened scientific
attention was given to the study of all manner of radiation effects.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in a large number of

incidents of radiation poisoning, allowing for greater insight into its symptoms
and dangers. Red Cross Hospital Surgeon, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki led intensive
research into the Syndrome in the weeks and months following the Hiroshima
bombings. Dr Sasaki and his team were able to monitor the effects of radiation in
patients of varying proximities to the blast itself, leading to the establishment of
three recorded stages of the syndrome. Within 25-30 days of the explosion, the
Red Cross surgeon noticed a sharp drop in white blood cell count and
established this drop, along with symptoms of fever, as prognostic standards for
Acute Radiation Syndrome. Actress Midori Naka, who was present during the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, was the first incident of radiation poisoning to be
extensively studied. Her death on August 24, 1945 was the first death ever to be
officially certified as a result of radiation poisoning (or "Atomic bomb disease").

Areas of interest
The interactions between organisms and electromagnetic fields (EMF) and
ionizing radiation can be studied in a number of ways:
Radiation physics
Radiation chemistry
molecular and cell biology
Molecular genetics
Cell death and apoptosis
Dose modifying agents
Protection and repair mechanisms
Tissue responses to radiation
Radio-adaptation of living organisms
High and low-level electromagnetic radiation and health
Specific absorption rates of organisms
Radiation poisoning
Radiation oncology (radiation therapy in cancer)
Bioelectromagnetics
Electric field and Magnetic field - their general nature.
Electrophysiology - the scientific study of the electrical properties of biological
cells and tissues.
Biomagnetism - the magnetic properties of living systems (see, for example, the
research of David Cohen using SQUID imaging) and Magnetobiology - the study
of effect of magnets upon living systems. See also Electromagnetic radiation and
health

Bioelectromagnetism - the electromagnetic properties of living systems and

Bioelectromagnetics - the study of the effect of electromagnetic fields on living
systems.
Electrotherapy
Radiation therapy
Radiogenomics
Electroconvulsive therapy
Transcranial magnetic stimulation - a powerful electrical current produces a
transient, spatially focussed magnetic field that can penetrate the scalp and skull
of a subject and induce electrical activity in the neurons on the surface of the
brain.
Magnetic resonance imaging - a very powerful magnetic field is used to obtain a
3D image of the density of water molecules of the brain, revealing different
anatomical structures. A related technique, functional magnetic resonance
imaging, reveals the pattern of blood flow in the brain and can show which parts
of the brain are involved in a particular task.
Embryogenesis, Ontogeny and Developmental biology - a discipline that has
given rise to many scientific field theories.
Bioenergetics - the study of energy exchange on the molecular level of living
systems.
Biological psychiatry, Neurology, Psychoneuroimmunology
Bioluminescence - a marked phosphoresecence found in fungi, deep-sea
creatures etc., as against Biophoton - a much weaker electromagnetic radiation,
thought by Alexander Gurwitsch, its discoverer, to be a form of signalling.
The activity of biological and astronomical systems inevitably generates
magnetic and electrical fields, which can be measured with sensitive instruments
and which have at times been suggested as a basis for "esoteric" ideas of energy.

Radiation sources for radiobiology

Radiobiology experiments typically make use of a radiation source which could
be:
An isotopic source, typically

137

Cs or

60

Co.

A particle accelerator generating high energy protons, electrons or charged

ions. Biological samples can be irradiated using either a broad, uniform beam138
or using a microbeam, focused down to cellular or subcellular sizes.
138Pattison, J. E., Hugtenburg, R. P., Beddoe, A. H. and Charles, M. W. (2001), Experimental
Simulation of A-bomb Gamma-ray Spectra for Radiobiology Studies, Radiation Protection
Dosimetry 95(2):125-136.

A UV lamp.

References and further reading

WikiMindMap
Eric Hall, Radiobiology for the Radiobiologist. 2006. Lippincott
G.Gordon Steel, "Basic Clinical Radiobiology". 2002. Hodder Arnold.
The Institute for Radiation Biology at the Helmholtz-Center for Environmental
Health [6]

Quantum biology
Quantum biology refers to applications of quantum mechanics to biological
objects and problems. Usually, it is taken to refer to applications of the "nontrivial" quantum features such as superposition, nonlocality, entanglement and
tunneling, as opposed to the "trivial" but ubiquitous quantum mechanical nature
of chemical bonding, ionization, and other phenomena that are the basis of the
fundamental biophysics and biochemistry of organisms.
Austrian-born physicist and theoretical biologist Erwin Schrdinger, one of the
founders of quantum theory in physics, was also one of the first scientists to
suggest a study of quantum biology in his 1944 book What Is Life?.

Applications
Many biological processes involve the conversion of energy into forms that are
usable for chemical transformations and are quantum mechanical in nature.
Such processes involve chemical reactions, light absorption, formation of excited
electronic states, transfer of excitation energy, and the transfer of electrons and
protons (hydrogen ions) in chemical processes such as photosynthesis and
cellular respiration.139 Quantum biology uses computation to model biological
interactions in light of quantum mechanical effects.140

139Quantum Biology. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Theoretical and Computational

Biophysics Group. http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/quantum_biology/
140http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070116133617.htm Science Daily Quantum
Biology: Powerful Computer Models Reveal Key Biological Mechanism Retrieved Oct 14, 2007

Some examples of the biological phenomena that have been studied in terms of
quantum processes are the absorbance of frequency-specific radiation (i.e.,
photosynthesis141 and vision); the conversion of chemical energy into motion;
magnetoreception in animals,142 DNA mutation143 and brownian motors in many
cellular processes.
Recent studies have identified quantum coherence and entanglement between
the excited states of different pigments in the light-harvesting stage of
photosynthesis. Although this stage of photosynthesis is highly efficient, it
remains unclear exactly how or if these quantum effects are relevant biologically.

Further reading
How Long is a Piece of Time? Phenomenal Time and Quantum Coherence.
Toward a Solution Vimal (Ram Lakhan Pandey) & Davia (Christopher James)
Quantum Biosystems, 1(2) 102-151, Editor Massimo Pregnolato
Derek Abbott, Julio Gea-Banacloche, Paul C. W. Davies, Stuart Hameroff, Anton
Zeilinger, Jens Eisert, Howard M. Wiseman, Sergey M. Bezrukov, and Hans
Frauenfelder, "Plenary debate: quantum effects in biologytrivial or not?"
Fluctuation and Noise Letters, 8(1), pp. C5C26, 2008.
Philip Ball, " Physics of life: The dawn of quantum biology," Nature 474 (2011),
272-274.
Bordonaro M, Ogryzko VV. "Quantum biology at the cellular level - Elements of
the research program". Biosystems. 2013 112(1):11-30. [7]
P.C.W. Davies, "Does quantum mechanics play a non-trivial role in life?"
BioSystems, 78, pp. 6979, 2004.
P.C.W. Davies, "Quantum fluctuations and life", quant-ph/0403017, 2 March
2004
Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili, "A quantum mechanical model of adaptive
mutation" BioSystems 50 (1999), 203-211.
Ogryzko VV. "Erwin Schroedinger, Francis Crick and epigenetic stability". Biol
Direct. 3, pp. 15, 2008. http://www.biology-direct.com/content/3/1/15
Erwin Schrdinger. What is Life?, Cambridge, 1944.
M. Tegmark, "Why the brain is probably not a quantum computer," Information
Sciences, 128, pp. 155179, 2000.

141Quantum Secrets of Photosynthesis Revealed

142Erik M. Gauger, Elisabeth Rieper, John J. L. Morton, Simon C. Benjamin, Vlatko Vedral:
Sustained quantum coherence and entanglement in the avian compass, Physics Review Letters,
vol. 106, no. 4, 040503 (2011) ( abstract, preprint)
143Lowdin, P.O. (1965) Quantum genetics and the aperiodic solid. Some aspects on the Biological
problems of heredity, mutations, aging and tumours in view of the quantum theory of the DNA
molecule. Advances in Quantum Chemistry. Volume 2. pp213-360. Academic Press

External links
Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Quantum Biology Workshop, September 2012, University of Surrey, UK - videos
of plenary talks and interviews with participants