Stochastic resonance at the single-cell level

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.