• Question: how do you get an electric shock?

    Asked by to Claire, Ian, Sergey, Vicky, Zena on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sergey Lamzin

      Sergey Lamzin answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      You stick two wires into a power outlet and hope the fuse blows before you are all crispy.

    • Photo: Ian Simpson

      Ian Simpson answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Lots of ways you can get an electric shock, best to be avoided by not messing around with electrical wires/equipment, train lines, power cables etc…

      The effect of electrical shock on the human body has been widely studied in particular it’s effects on the heart and brain. In the heart it’s pretty well understood and is the basis for CPR (resuscitation after heart attack etc..) in that case the high voltage resets the natural pace-maker in the heart (AV node) and the heart normally restarts it’s normal rhythm (a bit like rebooting your computer!).

      In the brain it’s much less well understood and most existing evidence rather sadly comes from treatment of people with chronic depression by electroconvulsive therapy. It’s a hugely controversial procedure and has highly variable levels of success. In principle it’s doing something a bit similar to CPR in overloading the electrical signalling in the brain and “resetting” the system. In reality it is not known how it works, there is some evidence it reprograms connections in a part of the brain called the hippocampus that is associated with mood and memory.

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