Effects on Neurons
As you may be aware, your nervous system controls or influences nearly everything that happens inside your body. From the speed of your heartbeat, to coordination of healing damaged tissue, to determining how much stomach acid is released after a meal, and millions of other functions that occur every day to keep you alive and healthy. All made possible by electrical impulses in the billions of neurons in your body, represented by the image to the right.
This image depicts a simple neuron that receive a stimulus (possibly from a sense organ, a brain cell, or another connecting neuron) in the vast network than extends throughout your body.
In order for an impulse to travel down a neuron, various actions occur on one part of the cell membrane that triggers an in-rush of sodium (Na+) into the cell; this then causes the adjacent area of the membrane to, in turn, open up to permit more sodium to flow. Essentially, this creates a wave of electrical charges that travel down the neuron to the endpoint which then triggers some action.
The point I'm trying to make here is that neurons can behave similar to our previous antenna example; but instead of pushing electrons through the cell, the charge from the wave appears to be able to stimulate portions of the cell membrane in a way that allows sodium to flow in, thus creating an artificial impulse that can mimic genuine nerve signals.
This of course can lead to body functions going a bit haywire. There are enough feedback and auto-regulatory 'circuits' to usually prevent any significant issues from appearing immediately, but over a sustained period of these mixed messages, bad things are bound to happen.
Note: Technically, what most people think of as a nerve is millions of these neurons bundled together as they leave the spinal cord before fanning out the the various tissues and organs to which they connect.
See also:
- Effects of electromagnetic fields on neuronal ion channels — Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences