Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2026

External Excitation of Neurons Using Electric and Magnetic Fields in One- and Two-dimensional Cultures
Published on: May 7, 2017
In situ electric fields causing electro-stimulation from conductor contact of charged human
Toshihiro Nagai1, Akimasa Hirata
1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Syowa-ku, Nagoya-shi 466-8555, Japan.
Abstract:
Contact currents flow from/into a human body when touching an object such as a metal structure with a different electric potential. These currents can stimulate muscle and peripheral nerves. In this context, computational analyses of in situ electric fields caused by the contact current have been performed, while their effectiveness for transient contact currents has not well been investigated. In the present study, using an anatomically based human model, a dispersive finite-difference time-domain model was utilised to computed transient contact current and in situ electric fields from a charged human. Computed in situ electric fields were highly localised in the hand. In order to obtain an insight into the relationship between in situ electric field and electro-stimulation, cell-maximum and 5-mm averaged in situ electric fields were computed and compared with strength-duration curves. The comparison suggests that both measures could be larger than thresholds derived from the strength-duration curves with parameters used in previous studies.
Related Concept Videos
Equipotential Surfaces and Conductors
Charging Conductors By Induction
Generally, conductors like metals do not allow any excess charge to be present on them. Any excess charge added to metals easily flows away, for example, when a metal is placed on the Earth. This process is called earthing.
However, conductors can be charged by a process called induction. For example, consider charging a...
Electric Field Inside a Conductor
Suppose a piece of metal is placed near a positive charge. The free electrons in the metal are attracted to the external positive charge and migrate freely toward that region. This region then has...
Induced Electric Fields
Induced Electric Fields: Applications
Electric Charges
The English physicist William Gilbert studied the phenomenon of static electricity in...
