Fig. 1: Biological and artificial afferent nerves.
From: Hybrid 3D printing of bio-inspired artificial slowly adapting type II afferents
a Schematic of biological afferent nerve. When stretching is applied to the skin, the SA-II mechanoreceptor in the biological afferent nerve responds by changing its receptor potential. The cell body processes the changes in receptor potential, converting them into action potentials that encode stretching information, which is then relayed to the central nervous system. b Schematic of artificial afferent nerve. In an artificial afferent nerve, the application of strain changes the resistance of the negative piezoresistive composite (NPC). This change is transmitted by printed conductive interconnections. The ring oscillator circuits transform this change into an electrical signal including strain information. c Images of the hybrid 3D printed artificial SA-II afferent nerve. Scale bars, 20 mm.
