David K. Wright1, 2, David B. Grayden3, Jhodie R. Duncan1, Leigh A. Johnston, 13
1Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; 2Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 3NeuroEngineering Laboratory, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne
Cochlear implants have been remarkably successful in providing hearing to the profoundly deaf, however there is great variability in the benefit that individual cochlear implant users experience. It is accepted that the condition of the auditory nerve correlates with implant success. To date, diffusion imaging studies have focused on higher auditory pathways rather than assessing the auditory nerve itself. As such, we assess high angular resolution diffusion imaging and q-space approaches in ex vivo rat cochlea, with the aim of developing a clinical tool to predict the viability of cochlea implantation prior to surgery.