Imaging the cochlea: Milestones of the last decades

Abstract

This article provides a brief historic review of what has happened in the field of cochlear imaging over the last few decades, during the period when I was involved in inner ear research.

Acknowledgements

In such a biased paper I have chosen to write mainly about the cochlear imaging carried out by our Montpellier Unit (INSERM and University Montpellier 1). I thank all my co-workers, many of whose work I refer to in the text and/or the figures, and especially my ‘twins’ in Electron Microscopy, Marc Lenoir and Mireille Lavigne-Rebillard. Nothing could have been done without their skilful expertise and enthusiasm, enabling us to get the best from such a frustrating technique. I also thank Jonathan Ewbank for editorial work, Jean-Louis Pasquier for the final images, and also my friends Ed Rubel, Rob Shepherd and Jean-Luc Puel for helping to keep me ‘alive’.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.