Fibrillation induced at powerline current levels

Electrical fibrillation of the human heart results in many unfortunate deaths. Because little information is available on short duration high current fibrillation, current levels below 1 and 50 A were used to induce ventricular fibrillation in hogs. Application times ranged between 16 ms and 3 s. Fibrillation was only produced when currents were applied during the T-wave period of the cardiac cycle. However, only 50 percent of the current application during the T-wave caused fibrillation. The total body resistance of the hogs was also measured at the high voltages and currents. The average resistance for 90 current applications was 284 omega. Trends in the data show that the total resistance decreases for increasing voltage, for increasing electrode size, and for current applications following the first current application.

60-Hz electric fields: detection by female rats

Female rats were trained to detect a vertical, 60-Hz electric field using the same apparatus and procedure we used previously to study behavioral detection of the field by male rats. Each rat was trained individually to press a lever in the presence of the field and not to press in its absence. Correct detections occasionally produced a food pellet. The probability of detecting the field increased as field strength increased. The threshold of detection--ie, the field strength required for detections at a probability of 0.5 after correction for errors--varied among rats between 3 and 10 kV/m. Behavioral detection by female rats was indistinguishable from that by male rats.

Behavioral detection of 60-Hz electric fields by rats

Rats partially deprived of food were trained individually to press a lever in the presence of a vertical, 60-Hz electric field and not to press in its absence. Correct detections that occurred during brief, 3- or 4-s trials occasionally produced a food pellet. The probability of detecting the field was found to increase as field strength increased. The threshold of detection, ie, the field strength required for detections at a probability of 0.5 after correction for errors, was generally between 4 and 10 kV/m. The range of field strengths between almost zero and almost 100% correctness of detection was approximately 8 kV/m. A logistic function provided a good description of the increase in the detection probability with increasing field strength. These performances occurred reliably in 19 rats, some of which were studied for 2 years. Control procedures showed that the behavior required that the rat be in the electric field; the behavior was not controlled by any of several potentially confounding variables.