Solving Spiral Mysteries

Every year over 1250 people in the UK receive cochlear implants to treat severe hearing loss. These implants only work if a collection of nerve cells in the cochlea called the spiral ganglion is healthy. A good blood supply is essential for this. Mapping the spiral ganglion's blood supply has proven difficult because of the ganglion's helical shape and it being encased in bone. Researchers now use synchrotron radiation phase-contrast imaging (SR-PCI) of human cochleas to create 3D models (pictured) of the spiral ganglion and its blood supply. They found the main artery supplying the spiral ganglion branches off into twigs (red) encased in bone (pale brown). Also, unlike most organs where arteries and veins follow the same paths, here they follow different paths. This may explain why the spiral ganglion remains healthy and allows for the successful use of cochlear implants even after significant damage to the cochlea.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Xueshuang Mei and colleagues, Dept of Surgical Sciences, Section of Otolaryngology, Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden &
• Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Medical Biophysics and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University, London, ON, Canada
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports. April 2020