Law of conservation - electric charge, brain death

[cameronmoore]

Hey there,

So I'm a bit of a newbie on this, and I'm just kind of wondering on this subject...

But could someone give a brief description of how conservation laws apply to electric charge? And more specifically, I'm thinking in terms of how it applies to synapses and such in the brain, especially how it would apply to the cessation of such electrical charges (and even chemical/neurotransmitter synapses) in the event of brain death. Does anyone know of any research even loosely related to these things? I realize it's kind of a combination of physics and neuroscience that I'm getting at, was just curious if there's any observations out there on this kind of process...e.g. quantum brain, even classical mechanics, etc. etc.

Thanks.

 

[atyy]

Charge is conserved in all known biological processes.

In long dead neurons, there are N positive charges and N negative charges outside the cell, and M positive charges and M negative charges inside the cell.

In living neurons, there are N positive charges and N-x negative charges outside the cell, and M positive charges and M+x negative charges inside the cell at rest.

In neurons in an animal that has just died, there will still be excess negative charge inside the cell. However, this excess charge will slowly leak out, until both the inside and outside are electrically neutral.