Bioelectromagnetism

Bioelectromagnetism studies electric fields, electric currents and magnetic fields associated with living systems and their interaction with applied fields. Ionic currents across and along biological cell membranes generate measurable signals; the surrounding tissue conducts and redistributes them.

In electrocardiography, surface electrodes measure electric potential differences produced by distributed cardiac activity rather than directly recording one isolated cell. A volume conductor model relates internal source currents to those surface readings. Electrode position and conducting geometry matter, so a changed voltage can reflect source activity, measurement contact or the current paths through tissue.

A volume conductor is a conducting three-dimensional medium through which electric currents flow. In the quasistatic bioelectric model, the total current density is $\mathbf{J}={\mathbf{J}}^p-\sigma \nabla u$, comprising an impressed source current and its Ohmic return current. Electric charge conservation gives $\nabla \cdot (\sigma \nabla u)=\nabla \cdot {\mathbf{J}}^p$. An insulating boundary has zero normal total current.

For a homogeneous volume conductor with an insulating boundary $S$, the Geselowitz formula expresses the exterior magnetic field as the primary Biot-Savart law field minus a surface contribution from the induced electric potential. For a current dipole, ${\mathbf{B}}^p={\mu }_0\mathbf{Q}\times (\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}_0)/(4\pi |\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}_0{|}^3)$. On a spherical boundary, ${\mathbf{n}}^{\prime }$ is parallel to ${\mathbf{r}}^{\prime }$, so the surface term has zero radial component at the observation point.

A spherical volume conductor model approximates a conducting body by a sphere, usually with uniform or radially stratified conductivity. It provides explicit forward models for electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography. Its symmetry makes a radial current dipole magnetically silent outside the sphere; departures from spherical symmetry need not retain that property.

For the exterior of a spherical volume conductor model, put $P=|\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}_0|$, $r=|\mathbf{r}|$ and $F=r{P}^2+P\mathbf{r}\cdot (\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}_0)$. The displayed Sarvas formula follows by taking the radial component of the Geselowitz formula and integrating the magnetic scalar potential from infinity. It is independent of a spherically symmetric conductivity profile. The sign shown uses $\mathbf{B}=+{\mu }_0\nabla U/(4\pi )$; conventions defining a magnetic potential with a minus sign reverse $U$. Sarvas's original paper derives the spherical-conductor field and its consequences for the inverse problem.

For $r>b$ and $P=|\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}_0|$, the displayed kernel satisfies $\varphi ={\int }_r^{\infty }ds/[s|s\hat{\mathbf{r}}-{\mathbf{r}}_0|]$. The limit at $b=0$ is $1/r$. Differentiating along $\mathbf{Q}\times {\mathbf{r}}_0$, which preserves $b$, gives $(\mathbf{Q}\times {\mathbf{r}}_0)\cdot {\nabla }_{{\mathbf{r}}_0}\varphi =(\mathbf{Q}\times {\mathbf{r}}_0)\cdot \mathbf{r}/F$. Thus it generates the normalized magnetic scalar potential in the Sarvas formula.