Can electricity enhance physical performance?

[Goplergop]

I am comic fan
There are several fiction character with electricity ability.
Like Sasuke and Kakashi from Naruto , and Killua Zoldyck from Hunter X Hunter, they use membrane concept of electricity to cover their bodies, which helps the electric nerve pulses to run at the electrical membrane like short cut , results with enhanced thinking and physical reflection.

Is it possible, does electricity work that way ?

Thank you

 

[Ibix]

No.

 

[Baluncore]

Is it possible, does electricity work that way ?

No.
The idea or concept probably comes from the fact that nerves work best and fast while they have a myelin membrane sheath. Demyelination is a disease.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin

Long ago I heard reports of a couple of people who were more immune to electric shock than others, (but not to electrical burns). It was said that they had a double myelin sheath on their nerves.
Double myelin sheaths are found in nature, but I would like to know if there is any credible documentation of immunity to electric shock as a result.

 

[BillTre]

Several factors affect responsiveness of a nerve cell to electrical shock.

Some or factors extrinsic to the nerve cells such as how close the stimulating electrode is to the particular nerve cell in question, amplitude of stimulation (V), frequency of stimulation, etc.
Intrinsic factors could include: size (diameter) of axon (important), myelination, membrane electrical properties based on things like particular membrane proteins (such as channel proteins that might be triggered by transmembrane voltage changes.

they use membrane concept of electricity to cover their bodies, which helps the electric nerve pulses to run at the electrical membrane like short cut , results with enhanced thinking and physical reflection.

I can't make any sense out of this.

 

[Frabjous]

I was surprised at how slow nerve conduction was (<120m/s)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve_conduction_velocity

This graph is interesting (https://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/42/10879)

Stimuli were painful and tactile stimuli randomly applied to the right hand. Reaction times were button presses with the index finger of the left hand. Central processing time was defined as latency between earliest stimulus-evoked cortical responses and reaction times.

 

[DaveC426913]

... membrane concept of electricity to cover their bodies, which helps the electric nerve pulses to run at the electrical membrane like short cut , results with enhanced thinking and physical reflection.

The technical term for such a description is word salad. Throw enough technical terms into a paragraph and it can make it sound to the uninitiated like it is plausible.

 

[DaveC426913]

normally when you get tired after doing heavy exercise its not the muscles themselves getting tired, the brain gets "tired" of sending impulses,

Er. It is my understanding that the electrolytic ions: K, Na, Ca, get exhausted and take time to replenish. That's the direct reason why muscles can't operate without a rest. Hitting the muscles with more impulses will cause them to exploit a secondary reaction that generates lactic acid - that's the painful "burn" you feel in a muscle cramp. You'd be in agony.

 

[jim mcnamara]

@frost_zero - What you claim seems to have problems.
Please post a reasonable reference - thanks.
This review reference disagrees:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5668469/

 

[frost_zero]

@frost_zero - What you claim seems to have problems.
Please post a reasonable reference - thanks.
This review reference disagrees:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5668469/

thats true I should have researched it further because I remember reading this somewhere way earlier, not even from a citable source, my bad

 

[Hornbein]

Er. It is my understanding that the electrolytic ions: K, Na, Ca, get exhausted and take time to replenish. That's the direct reason why muscles can't operate without a rest. Hitting the muscles with more impulses will cause them to exploit a secondary reaction that generates lactic acid - that's the painful "burn" you feel in a muscle cramp. You'd be in agony.

If I recall my college training correctly the lactic acid is generated by the muscles' metabolism when oxygen is depleted.

 

[Rive]

Is it possible, does electricity work that way ?

In general, no. The whole 'membrane concept of electricity to cover their bodies' remains magic.
Closest to the concept would be this or this.

Somewhere down the road on that line there is a very distant possibility to effectively control muscles with electronics: further down to do it faster. But this is so distant, that the best what can be said is that the usual electronics/augmented cyborg-stuff from sci-fi is not entirely baseless.

Regarding the 'enhanced thinking' part, it's even worse. Far worse.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

Is it possible, does electricity work that way ?

Acknowledging that they are comics, @Goplergop, one could argue that enhanced mitochondria in these comic book characters could explain enhanced physical reactions. In this case, it's more 'electricity' within our cells than plugging your hero into the closest wall socket, but at least it adds a patina of science to the otherwise 110% fiction.

I'm not sure that it would explain "enhanced thinking", though. To be fair, we don't truly understand 'thinking' sufficiently to make an absolute statement in how electricity - or mitochondria - might turbo charge it, but as electric shocks tend to stun or kill people, it seems unlikely.

 

[BillTre]

WRT mitochondria, mitochondria are there to provide cells with energy in the form of ATP, a chemical that reacts with other chemicals, independent of electrical considerations.
Mitochondria do generate an electrical potential across their membrane (by pumping protons (H⁺ out of the mitochondria when as a result of the Electron transport chain of reactions). The use this electrical potential to drive the membrane ATPase's function to make ATP from ADP and phosphate.

Upper electric potentials across membranes usually just causes them to momentarily breakdown during which a less charged situation is restored.
Sudden shocks to biological systems mostly result in momentary uncoordinated discharges, not enhanced function. Good for making laboratory measurements, not usually a way to improve behavior.
Too much shock or too many discharges can cause more serious and irreversable damage.

 

[Nik_2213]

Having found myself in a heap on other side of room when an old stand-lamp's plug shattered at my touch, I counted myself lucky to escape with only a bad fright and a day of muscle shakes...

Um, how do 'Electric Eels' and their ilk manage ? IIRC, they use their 'electricity' both as 'radar' and 'taser'.

Analogy with eg bottle-nose dolphins who can use their sonar both to track and stun...