Bioelektrisk

Bioelektrisk, or bioelectric in English, refers to the electrical phenomena that arise in living tissues and organisms, and to technologies that exploit these signals for study or intervention. In Scandinavian scientific usage the term describes both natural electrical activity and devices that interact with biology.

Biological membranes maintain resting potentials through ion gradients created by pumps and channels, notably Na+/K+-ATPase and various ion channels. Excitable cells such as neurons and muscle fibers generate rapid changes in membrane voltage, known as action potentials, which enable nerve signaling, muscle contraction, and sensory processing.

Electrical activity is recorded with techniques including electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiography (ECG), electromyography (EMG), and patch-clamp or voltage-clamp methods. Impedance-based approaches (bioelectrical impedance analysis) estimate tissue properties and composition.

Applications span medicine and research. Diagnostic and monitoring tools include EEG and ECG; therapeutic approaches include electrical neuromodulation (for example, deep brain stimulation and transcranial stimulation), wound-healing and bone-stimulation protocols, and neural interfaces such as brain–computer interfaces. The field also covers plant electrophysiology and other non-animal bioelectric systems.

Research integrates biology, physics, and engineering, with ongoing developments in biocompatible electrodes, computational models of membrane dynamics, and bioelectronic medicine. Key challenges involve safety, long-term stability, signal interpretation, and ethical considerations in interfacing devices with living tissue.