Abstract: When pulse currents are applied to metal materials, thermal and non-thermal effects will occur.The coupling of the two effects can promote dislocation movement and atom diffusion and increase the mobility of vacancy diffusion, leading to the evolution of microstructure of metal materials and forming an electroplastic effect.On the basis of the basic theory of electroplastic effects, the research progress on the pulse current treatment regulating the microstructure of metal materials and the application of pulse currents in auxiliary plastic processing and cutting processing are reviewed.It is pointed out that future researches are focused on the coupling mechanism of thermal effects and non-thermal effects in pulse current treatment and pulse current assisted processing, and current density distribution in application to complex structure parts, etc.