See, Hear

Every sound you can hear right now is formed of vibrations in the air. These vibrations shake tiny sensors in your ear, which convert motion into molecular messages that your brain interprets as sound. These sensors sit in along a spiral shaped structure called the organ of Corti. Mapping out the exact structure of this coil and its cells would help decipher what happens when hearing deteriorates, but classic dissection techniques lose much of the 3D structure – problematic as different parts respond to different sound frequencies, and much hearing loss is frequency-dependent. With a combination of tissue clearing – a technique that renders organs transparent for visualisation – and machine-learning pattern recognition, a new study has produced 3D high definition images (pictured from above the side). This will provide a glimpse at both normal hearing and disease progression, potentially one day leading to new therapies for age-related hearing loss.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Shinji Urata and colleagues
• Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, January 2019