What is it in out Brain that is sensitive to EMF?

[BHX]

Wait, I just got to thinking back to my health classes years ago. Don't cells use electrochemical signals to communicate? So how is electrical signals, electrochemical signals, and false signal interpretations from electromagnetic fields different?

[naraku9333]

IWishIKnew wrote:

I appreciate your tenacity. This only indicates that cell phone signals affect the brain by increasing it's activity. It doesn't prove that it makes you nervous or paranoid.

IWishIKnew wrote:

The emf would have to be pretty damn strong (think of an electro magnet the size of a skyscraper with gigawatts of power running through it) to affect the operation of your nervous system, though, because the electrical current in your body is very very small.

My point in linking the article was that it does not need to be pretty damn strong.

[helios]

IWishIKnew: So, I'm confused. Are you arguing that EM doesn't affect the nervous system, or that it does? Because you seem to be arguing both.

So how is electrical signals, electrochemical signals, and false signal interpretations from electromagnetic fields different?

"Electrochemical" refers in this context primarily to how the electricity is generated.
>If a chemical reaction is driven by an externally applied voltage, as in electrolysis, or if a voltage is created by a chemical reaction as in a battery, it is an electrochemical reaction. In contrast, chemical reactions where electrons are transferred between molecules are called oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions. In general, electrochemistry deals with situations where redox reactions are separated in space or time, connected by an external electric circuit.

[Thumper]

IWishIKnew wrote:

But you're forgetting: The medium in which the "signal" travels is through the magnetic field

What? No. A magnetic field is not a medium. A field isn't something that has mass. It's simply a value associated with every point in space. It's not a physical thing. The medium through which the "signal" (that is, physical electrons moving) travels is the ions and other proteins that exist inside of a neurons axon.
That insane misrepresentation aside, neurons have voltage gated sodium-potassium channels embedded in their membrane all the way down the axon. Voltage gated means they open and close depending on voltage. When stimulated past a certain threshold that's created assumably by some outside stimulus (another neuron firing, perhaps?), of about -30mV in humans, the channels open allowing sodium ions to flood in, depolarizing the site in the neuron, and starting a chain reaction down the axon that results in neighboring sodium-potassium channels to open, carrying a net charge down the neuron. The biology isn't even the important part of what I'm saying. It's voltage gated. An electromagnetic field influences an electrical field. Voltage at a point in space is directly related to the magnitude of the electric field at that same point in space. I'm not saying that every electromagnetic wave that passes through our body will induce a change in voltage that's significant, I'm saying that it's indisputably possible for external fields to influence our body in a way that it acts as the external stimulation for a neuron to fire that I mentioned above.

It has nothing to do with the electrical resistance between synapses. Although sometimes it is the conductivity of the synaptic fluid between two neurons that causes stimulation after the previous neuron fires, other times it's the release of a neurotransmitter that floats across the synapse.

It also has nothing to do with the nerve "interpreting" a difference. A nerve isn't an entity that recognizes where it gets its stimulation from. The physics of the atoms its built by and space around it determine what causes this stimulation. The neuron itself doesn't care, because it's not capable of caring.

Late edit: I spelt "axon" as "axom" because I can't even. Fixed that

[IWishIKnew]

@thumper:
It is the medium of communication. I was not refering to a physical medium. Since the field is the medium, you can't argue that it sends electrical signals.

@naraku:

Yes, but look at how long they were exposed. 50 minutes non-stop.

[Cheraphy]

TL:DR on the entire thread, but sounds to me like L B has a case of the placebo effect.

[LB]

As strong as the irritation was, I highly doubt that. It was really disturbing to me, and I don't want to do it again unless I have to.

[TheBeardedQuack]

I do believe it's actually the nocebo effect when the effect is causing a negative effect. You believe it's going to harm you, so your brain makes it so.

Anyways, to do with the original topic, I know that studies have been conducted linking the tiny power of a mobile's microwave field having a small effect on the brain, however I think we're yet to find 'evidence' of this happening to a major scale where the field can effect our thoughts/feelings/memories.

And the electromagnetic / electrical field / electrical current....
Seriously guys if you're on a forum like this you should do your research first and know that these are all linked, and yes the CHANGE in an electromagnetic flux induces a current, (and phone signals are pulsed so this does obviously create a field)

And for what frequency the EM wave operated on shouldn't really matter that much as long as you're not being boiled alive, it still induces current so all-in-all, as far as we know, EM interference with the mind is possible, but we haven't seen it.

[Thumper]

IWishIKnew wrote:

It is the medium of communication. I was not refering to a physical medium. Since the field is the medium, you can't argue that it sends electrical signals.

None of that makes any sense at all, I'm sorry.

SatsumaBenji wrote:

these are all linked

That's what I've been trying to say, lol.

@L B
In the name of science, try it again :) because that never ended in anything bad, haha
There are a bunch of theories about being hypersensitive to EMFs. As far as I can tell from articles I've read, though, there's no known biological basis for it (yet).

[LB]

SatsumaBenji wrote:

You believe it's going to harm you, so your brain makes it so.

I didn't believe it was going to harm me, in fact it took me a while to figure out what was causing it.

[TheBeardedQuack]

I didn't believe it was going to harm me, in fact it took me a while to figure out what was causing it.

Well it wasn't me that actually said you where acting under this effect, I merely intended to educate Cheraphy in the correct term what is the exact opposite, of the placebo effect.

There are a bunch of theories about being hypersensitive to EMFs

Indeed, we are forgetting that everybody has a different biological make up and different tolerances to everything there is to experience. It could just be that we haven't been testing on people who are highly susceptible to these fields.