What I don't understand is what makes it in the beginning. How does an electric eel make that electricity? How do they regulate it? And, the sort of silly question, what does an electric eel with epilepsy look like? It would have to be very dangerous to be around!
The other question I have after reading this is why have the majority of the drugs I take for e been sedative in nature? Does something that's sedated really produce less electricity, or is it just less noticeable when they do because of their calm?
Fascinating conversation, though! Thank you, Michael!
What I can easily address is that, according to my understanding, AED's are ion channel blockers, and therefore prevent intracelluar polarity changes. They are inhibitors, antagonists, "coolers" to electrical activity in the brain, and are subsequently sedative. Electricity does not flow as well when it is cold, which is why cars are less likely to start in the wintertime. So, you are right.
In a car, the battery provides the electrical energy, to turn the starter, which then engages the flywheel, which is connected to the crankshaft, which then engages the camshaft...the electrical energy is converted to mechanical energy, thus making the car run.
Our bodies are like batteries. The electrical signals in the brain lead to mechanical energy in our bodies through chemical reactions, the reaction of atoms and molecules of differing electrical charges. Food ingestion is one aspect of what helps to drive these chemical reactions in us.
It is the intracelluar polarity changes which create electric potential through the reaction of cations and anions. These polarity changes are action potentials which must them be released, into either more electricity, or converted into mechanical energy. When people are having seizures, the electrical energy in the brain is released creating mechanical energy in the body, which creates movement, or shaking, etc.
It might help to think of electricity as two buckets with differing levels of water in it. The bucket with more water in it (the positive side) will want to flow into the bucket with less water in it (the negative side) until both levels are the same. This is what happens with elements in the periodic table, as well as with atoms, proteins, and moldecules, to name a few, in our bodies. There are certain atoms which have electrons to give (positive side) which are transferred to atoms which are short a few electrons (negative side). It is this transfer which creates electricity. Batteries, unless they are rechargeable, lose this difference potential over time.
Anythiing along the electromagnetic spectrum emits some sort of energy, which is our external source of energy. I have a copy of the electromagnetic spectrum handy, as well as a periodic table.
If there are things I am unfamiliar with, I either need repetition, or I need something familiar enough to bridge the familiar to the unfamiliar, until it registers.
