#ox.txt

i've no idea how to describe my own art for an ID, so pardon me on that, but to explain what the colored dots are pointing to-

Pink: that's the scar for where her main Nerve Electrode is! that'll either be stuck into or around her nerve, with subcutaneous wires that travel back to her ARI's (augmented reality interface) main hub, as well as-

Blue: the potential 8 dot scars where the wires for different channels come out, to be connected to an external computer. they'd have to be branches of a main wire, though, because she'd still need the main ones to remains subcutaneous.

(channels, by the way, are just communication lines between a nerve's stimulation point, and the computer / ARI / haptic system. the more channels there are, "the more selectively we’ll be able to access small groups of axons and provide a more useful range of sensations.")

Green: multiple Nerve Electrodes can go into the same scar, if the individual nerves are close together, and that's why we've got a second set of dots there, since this is supposed to represent two electrodes on her Median and Ulnar arm nerves! if there was one for her Radial nerve, then there might be 4 or 8 more dot scars, but i didn't feel like drawing that.

now, watch out, because we're henceforth going to get into... some spooky science jargon! ah! AH!

(it's not actually that bad, don't worry)

but, "hey," you might be thinking, if you've read my previous nastya cybernetics essay, "why didn't you mention any external wires for electrode channels in THAT post?" and the answer is simple! i did not know they existed back then. oh, and it's uh, also that there's different types of Nerve Electrodes.

here's one of them, known as a Flat Interface Nerve Electrode, aka... FINE!

[image ID: A close-up of three flat interface nerve electrodes, two of them metallic, and one composite. Their shape is rectangular, oblong and cuff-like, with wires trailing out from their bottom middle, where the cuff folds to clasp closed. 8 small metallic squares are spaced out on their inner surface, 4 on each side of the cuff. /end ID]

and here's the one i mentioned in my old post, a Microelectrode Array, aka MEA!

[image ID: A 4 millimeter by 4 millimeter Microelectrode Array, shown on a UK 1 Pence piece for scale. The Microelectrode Array is a thin, gray flat square, with its 100 needle-like microelectrodes pointing upwards. From along its side, extremely thin wires gather into one string, and trail upwards out of frame. /end ID]

so the one i thought she might have back then, the MEA, is classified an Intraneural Electrode. and the FINE, which is the type that would give her those multiple dot scars, would classify as Extraneural. (this is because the MEA is stuck directly into the nerve, where as the FINE is pressed around the nerve, which is less invasive and less damaging!)

and you know, she might still have some MEA's! she might have both FINE's and MEA's, since they have different advantages- the MEA "offers the potential of higher selectivity", because all of it's needles are different channels, and the FINE "allows for better access to distinct populations of nerve fascicle".

but, ah, that's besides today's point. what i'd like to do from here on out is just show you two examples of real-world Nerve Electrode implant scars! again, sources will be in a reblog, but to quickly explain what i'm showing here-

this is the arm of Igor Spetic, who in a 2014-2015 study, had two FINE's set around his Ulnar and Median nerves, then a circular Nerve Electrode around his Radial nerve, which- guess what?- was able to generate some pretty impressive sensation from a hand that he'd had amputated!

[image ID: A close-up of Igor Spetics's upper arm at his implant site. It has a thin, white, vertical scar, with small wires coming out on either side, attaching themselves to a bigger wire setup lower down. /end ID]

and for this next one, it's a different study (that i'll still link, even though it's reaaal long), but it's just to show a more clear image of the C-FINE's (composite flat interface nerve electrodes), and the 8 channel-wire leads.

[image ID: To the left is two composite flat electrode cuffs, one open and one closed, with measurements for their dimensions. To the right, a picture of 8 in-dwelling wire leads trailing out of pale skin, in a 4-down 2-across array, with an arrow pointing to some erythema at the bottom most right lead. /end ID]

and that's about all i wanted to show for her scars! there's some interesting specifics to some of the stories, like Igor Spectic's, which would put Mark Gasson's little 2009 MEA experiment to shame (and also shows that my guess for nastya and aurora's physio-empathy can be real!!), so i do suggest you take a little look at the sources!

really, i just it'd be fun if nastya was a little scarred up! maybe she wasn't such a calm baby as Cyberia's machines implanted her ARI! maybe her scars are a bit jagged in places!