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basilar membrane of the bat
source
Gunnar Nylund
Nautilus shell
Rörstrand Sweden, c. 1948 glazed earthenware 14 h × 9½ w × 6 d in (36 × 24 × 15 cm)
via wright20
professor liked our little audiology related sketches:)🐌
Hearing Aid?
Cells in our tissues exchange Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) – caused by dysfunction of the cochlea or its nerve connections – is very common in the elderly population, but it’s also possible to be born with SNHL or develop it at a young age. This early-onset form is linked to various genes – most recently, the gene for carboxypeptidase D (CPD). CPD regulates production of the signalling molecule nitric oxide (NO) via arginine (an amino acid) processing, and studies show that cells from SNHL patients with CPD mutations have unusually low levels of NO. Studies of a fruit fly model of CPD deficiency revealed the animals have cellular abnormalities in their equivalent of the cochlea – Johnston's organ (pictured) – and display behaviours consistent with auditory impairment. Importantly, this could be partially rescued when the flies were given arginine to support NO production, raising hope that treatments targeting the CPD/arginine/NO pathway might help restore hearing in SNHL patients too.
Written by Ruth Williams
Image by Natalie Ortiz-Vega, Chong Li, & Rong Grace Zhai. Relating to article by Memoona Ramzan and colleagues
John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics & Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA
Image originally published with 'please credit': Equates to Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Research published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, September 2025
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Since we're all talking about the CCG & Cochlea now...
Thoughts on Hinami's description of it?
(Top is the fan translation by @drowning-in-theories; bottom is the official english Viz translation.)
Like... We learn so early on that ghouls don't have human rights under the law. And plenty of examples of how brutal the CCG is when hunting them down.
And yet... Cochlea sounds surprisingly humane?
Don't get me wrong. I know there's a lot of torture going on that simply wasn't applicable to Hinami.
But the exercise? The meals?
(I know fans usually claim that the CCG feeds them a liquid solution of ghouls, but I don't remember that being canonically confirmed, and imo Hinami makes it sound like its made of human.)
From a worldbuilding standpoint I really don't understand why Cochlea works like this. Why is it so "nice"? Why do they do so much for ghouls that they don't even consider to be people?
You'd think they'd keep them all wasting away in solitary confinement unless absolutely necessary. Maybe only treating them somewhat humanely as a "reward" for providing information, thus encouraging them to share more to get that little bit of good treatment again.
It's just always felt jarring to me, going from "simply activating a kakugan is a crime and can get a ghoul instantly killed" to ghouls being allowed to talk and exercise in a prison courtyard.
Like... Is Hinami just very out of touch because of her special circumstances, or is Cochlea truly not as bad as it could be?
(A) SR-PCI data of a left human cochlea. 3D Slicer (www.slicer.org, version 4.10.1)13 was used to create a detailed 3D representation including intra-cochlear soft tissue. The basilar membrane and spiral ganglion were segmented, and the frequency coordinates were calculated using Greenwood’s formula14 and dendrite tracing. (B,C) For the spiral ganglion, the dendrites were traced from the basilar membrane to make a corresponding frequency map (shown with color scale). Note the angle of dendritic connections are not radial to the mid-modiolar axis in the apical and basal region (denoted by *). (D) Representative tomographic X-ray section showing the segmented round window (red), neural elements (yellow) and basilar membrane (green). GIMP 2 (www.gimp.org) was used to create the figures. (Source: Li, H., Helpard, L., Ekeroot, J. et al. Three-dimensional tonotopic mapping of the human cochlea based on synchrotron radiation phase-contrast imaging. Sci Rep 11, 4437 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83225-w)
Remember guys, no matter who you are, regardless of sexuality, race, gender or beliefs…
there’s a snail in your skull :)
There’s a snail inside all of us, Listen to the brain snail, for he has always listened to you. Self-care is heeding the advice of the snail in your head.
Listen carefully. Shhhh. Your snail is speaking to you.
