Fig. 1: Schematic representation of the ear anatomy and sample preparation.

A The 3D structure of the middle and inner ear, especially the organ of Corti (OoC) with the hair cells and their innervation by the spiral ganglion neurons are of interest for auditory research. B Sample preparation for XPCT experiments. Temporal bones were retrieved during routine autopsy and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) for several days. One temporal bone was kept in 4% PFA (H09). Another temporal bone was dehydrated in an increasing ethanol (EtOH) series up to 70% EtOH (H03). A third temporal bone was implanted with an optical cochlear implant (oCI) and kept in PBS. Two additional temporal bones got trimmed down to the cochlea of which one was decalcified and dehydrated to 70% EtOH (H01). The other cochlea was stained with osmium tetroxide (OTO) and kept in PBS (H02). All samples were mounted in cylindrical jars with agarose to avoid sample movement and degassed to avoid bubble formation. Fig. created with Bio Render.