What Happens When We Stimulate Cells with Electricity?

Electrical stimulation of cells can elicit a variety of biological outcomes, e.g. the firing of action potentials in neurons, or the promotion of apoptosis in dividing cells. Clinical uses of electrical stimulation include the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia, profound deafness, movement disorders and different forms of cancer. Still, a unified description of the phenomena elicited by electrical stimulation does not exist and different communities focus on particular aspects within the general field (electrophysiology, tissue engineering, electroporation, tumour treating fields). I will discuss a generalised framework for discussing these phenomena, starting with experimental ways to avoid the production of chemical species at the electrodes, following with a review of the physical phenomena that take place upon electrical stimulation and ending with the elicited biological outcomes.