title: Gauging the strength of power frequency fields against membrane electrical noise.
abstract: The possible physiological effect of power frequency fields (60 Hz in the US, 50 Hz in most other countries) is still a hotly debated issue. These relatively slow fields distribute themselves across cell membranes and a common approach has been to compare the strength of these fields to the strength of the electric noise that the membrane generates itself through Brownian motion. However, there has been disagreement among researchers on how to evaluate the membrane electric noise. In the first part of this article three major models are discussed. In the second part an ab initio modeling of membrane electric fields finds that different manifestations of Brownian noise lead to an electric noise intensity that is many times larger than what conventional estimates have yielded. Finally, the legitimacy of gauging a nonequilibrium external signal against internal equilibrium noise is questioned.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA. bierm@mail.ecu.edu
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D004560:Electricity; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D006801:Humans; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*