![]() ![]() Some participants even grasped the eels firmly in their hands and felt the ‘electric stroke’ of the eel in addition to observing the spark. George Baker's exhibition made visible the ‘electric spark’ of the electrical eel and a series of experiments were both witnessed by and participated in by members of the Royal Society and the metropolitan elite. In 17 five living electric eels exhibited in London became a sensational spectacle that appealed to anatomists, electricians and connoisseurs of erotica. Furthermore, we propose ways to further develop tDCS research. This chapter provides an up-to-date overview of a number tDCS relevant topics such as mechanisms of action, contemporary applications and safety. The main advantages of tDCS are the absence of serious or intolerable side effects and the portability of the devices, which might lead in the future to home-use applications and improved patient care. Although findings of clinical trials are preliminary for most studied conditions, there is already convincing evidence regarding its efficacy for unipolar depression. Such properties place tDCS as an appealing intervention for the treatment of diverse neuropsychiatric disorders. Additionally, tDCS induces plastic synaptic changes resembling long-term potentiation (LTP) or long-term depression (LTD) that outlast the period of stimulation. Although the resulting cerebral EFs are not strong enough to induce action potentials, spontaneous neuronal firing in response to inputs from other brain areas is influenced by tDCS. It delivers subthreshold electrical currents to neuronal populations that shift resting membrane potential either toward depolarization or hyperpolarization, depending on stimulation parameters and neuronal orientation in relation to the induced electric field (EF). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a re-emerging non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has been used in animal models and human trials aimed to elucidate neurophysiology and behavior interactions. One of the most popular demonstrations of the time was the The most common electrical experiments provide a glimpse into the different roles salon culture codified for ladies and gentlemen. Although both men and women could experience the electric fire with their bodies, they would tackle it in different ways. Electrical performances staged in courts and salons counted on their active participation and played with sexual difference. Women became essential protagonists of electrical soirées. Educated ladies and gentlemen delighted in experimenting on the natural world Bodily attractions Newtonian natural philosophy spread widely thanks to the courses that itinerant lecturers offered to paying audiences. Public lectures on natural philosophy, based on experimental demonstrations, were well-established forms of education and recreation in the mid-eighteenth century. The quick reception of electrical science in the public sphere was strictly tied to the ongoing success of experimental philosophy. Equipped with the most up-to-date electrical instruments, performers readily included ‘medical’ electricity in their repertoire of Science in the salon The therapeutic virtues of electricity remained a debated issue throughout the century, nonetheless patients were receptive towards the possibility that the newly discovered electric fire might also be a healing agent. Indeed, it was in the age of Enlightenment that electricity gained prominence both in the academic world and in the public Useful electricityĪlong with the Leyden jar, another innovation brought electricity to the fore of learned discussions and public interest: medical electricity. In 1767, almost two decades later, his friend and chemist Joseph Priestley termed it the ‘youngest daughter of the sciences’. In the age of The new science of the EnlightenmentĪlthough the etymology of the word electricity testifies to the fact that the attractive properties of rubbed amber ( elektron in Greek) had been known since antiquity, at the time Franklin wrote, electricity was still regarded as a young science. This description of an electrical party, penned by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, humorously captures the eighteenth-century craze for everything electric. ‘A turkey is to be killed for dinner by the electric shock, and roasted by the electric jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle when the healths of all the famous electricians of England, France, Holland, and Germany, are to be drunk in electrified bumpers, under the discharge of guns from the electrical battery. ![]()
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