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Stochastic resonance at the single-cell level

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Abstract

Does the electricity with which we power our world pose significant health hazards from the resulting electromagnetic fields? Several authors1,2 have speculated that ‘stochastic resonance’3 — a nonlinear phenomenon in which the addition of noise to a system increases its response to an external signal — may allow biological cells to detect and respond to very weak external electric fields far below the thermal noise limit4,5, and thus possibly cause harmful effects. Here we examine this question using a recent theory of Bezrukov and Vodyanoy6 for the effect of non-equilibrium noise on a voltage detector (such as a biological ion channel7). We show that with parameters appropriate for typical biological cells, adding noise does not make a far-from-detectable signal detectable.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Surgery and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    R. Dean Astumian

  2. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, 6520, Connecticut, USA

    R. K. Adair

  3. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    James C. Weaver

Authors
  1. R. Dean Astumian
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  2. R. K. Adair
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  3. James C. Weaver
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Astumian, R., Adair, R. & Weaver, J. Stochastic resonance at the single-cell level. Nature 388, 632–633 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41684

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