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. 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 0.1°C. However, biological effects have been shown to be present for these non-thermal exposures; Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain these, and there may be several mechanisms underlying the differing phenomena observed. Biological effects of weak electromagnetic fields are the subject of study in magnetobiology.

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.

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. 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. 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 100–300 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.

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, 1985–present, (ISSN 0197-8462)
 * Bioelectrochemistry, Elsevier, 1974–present, (ISSN 1567-5394)
 * International Journal of Bioelectromagnetism, ISBEM, 1999–present, (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)