Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
The ability to obtain multicellular functional images in vivo has transformed neuroscience research, especially the field of sensory physiology. However, advancement of our understanding of inner ear physiology has fallen far behind other fields because of the physical difficulty to access the cochlea which invariably causes irreversible damage to auditory function. Our novel surgical methods allow real-time visualization of multiple cochlear cells in hearing-preserved animals. We use these approaches to help characterize the properties of sound coding and processing in the cochlea and along the central auditory pathway. Our efforts will also shed light on the transport of ototoxic drugs into the cochlea and promote the development of pathway blockers to prevent drug-induced hearing loss.