bioelectricity, electric potentials and currents produced by or occurring within living organisms. Bioelectric potentials are generated by a variety of biological processes and generally range in strength from one to a few hundred millivolts. In the electric eel, however, currents of one ampere at 600 to 1,000 volts are generated. A brief treatment of bioelectricity follows. For full treatment, see electricity: Bioelectric effects.
Bioelectric effects were known in ancient times from the activity of such electric fishes as the Nile catfish and the electric eel. The experiments of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta in the 18th century on the connection between electricity and muscle contraction in frogs and other animals were of importance in the development of the sciences of physics and physiology. In modern times the measurement of bioelectric potentials has become a routine practice in clinical medicine. Electrical effects originating in active cells of the heart and the brain, for example, are commonly monitored and analyzed for diagnostic purposes.
Bioelectric potentials are identical with the potentials produced by devices such as batteries or generators. In nearly all cases, however, a bioelectric current consists of a flow of ions (i.e., electrically charged atoms or molecules), whereas the electric current used for lighting, communication, or power is a movement of electrons. If two solutions with different concentrations of an ion are separated by a membrane that blocks the flow of the ions between them, the concentration imbalance gives rise to an electric-potential difference between the solutions. In most solutions, ions of a given electric charge are accompanied by ions of opposite charge, so that the solution itself has no net charge. If two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a membrane that allows one kind of ion to pass but not the other, the concentrations of the ion that can pass will tend to equalize by diffusion, producing equal and opposite net charges in the two solutions. In living cells the two solutions are those found inside and outside the cell. The cell membrane separating inside from outside is semipermeable, allowing certain ions to pass through while blocking others. In particular, nerve- and muscle-cell membranes are slightly permeable to positive potassium ions, which diffuse outward, leaving a net negative charge in the cell.
The bioelectric potential across a cell membrane is typically about 50 millivolts; this potential is known as the resting potential. All cells use their bioelectric potentials to assist or control metabolic processes, but some cells make specialized use of bioelectric potentials and currents for distinctive physiological functions. Examples of such uses are found in nerve and muscle cells. Information is carried by electric pulses (called action potentials) passing along nerve fibres. Similar pulses in muscle cells accompany muscular contraction. In nerve and muscle cells, chemical or electrochemical stimulation results in temporary changes in the permeability of cell membranes, allowing the electric potential between inside and outside to discharge as a current that is propagated along nerve fibres or that activates the contractile mechanism of muscle fibres. The transport of sodium ions is involved in the production of action potentials. Among other cells in which specialized functions are dependent on the maintenance of bioelectric potentials are the receptor cells sensitive to light, sound, and touch and many of the cells that secrete hormones or other substances.
Various fishes, both marine and freshwater, have developed special organs that are capable of generating substantial electric discharges, while others have tissues that can sense feeble electric fields in water. In more than 200 fish species, the bioelectric organ is involved in self-defense or hunting. The torpedo, or electric ray, and the electric eel have especially powerful electric organs, which they apparently use to immobilize or kill prey. The electric eel has three pairs of electric organs; they constitute most of the mass of the body and about four-fifths of the total length of the fish. This fish is reputed to be able to generate a sufficiently powerful electric shock to stun a man. Electric rays have two large, disk-shaped electric organs, one on each side of the body, that contribute to the disklike shape of the body.
The electric catfish of Africa, the knife fish of Latin America, and the stargazers probably use their bioelectric organs as sense organs in the detection of other fishes.
The basic element of a bioelectric organ is a flattened cell called an electroplaque. Large numbers of electroplaques are arranged in series and in parallel to build up voltage and current-producing capacity of the electric organ. Fishes deliver a sudden discharge of electricity by timing the nervous impulses that activate individual electroplaques, thereby providing simultaneous action of the entire array.