Organ Donor — Can You Leave Your Ears to Medical Science?

[glynis]

I am down as an organ donor.
Can you leave your ears etc to medical science?

 

[GregCA]

I am down as an organ donor.

Me too.

Can you leave your ears etc to medical science?

I would imagine so. Is there any reason to doubt it?

 

[glynis]

I'm just not sure in the UK about ears for research as I want a cremation so they are welcome to them...

 

[Ambassador]

Donating the ears will do nothing for research. What goes on on the inside of the ear drum is where it's at. What they need to be looking at is auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes auditory information. I don't know what they can lear from a dead brain. There's a misfiring that I don't think will be detectable after death.

This is one of many many reasons why research is slow and treatment mostly non existent.

 

[GregCA]

Donating the ears will do nothing for research. What goes on on the inside of the ear drum is where it's at.

We've already been learning many things from "dead ears" for decades: researchers aren't shy about slicing up parts of the hearing apparatus that is "inside of the ear drum" as you put it (the cochlea is a common target). They're not going to stop at the ear drum and just analyze the pinna.

 

[Aaron123]

Can you leave your ears etc to medical sience ?

In the US, you can donate your temporal bone. There is a thread about it here: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/temporal-bone-registry-—-sign-up-to-help-research-for-a-cure.14864/
Not sure if there is something similar in the UK.

Donating the ears will do nothing for research.

This is incorrect. Temporal bones are used for research especially, though not limited to, researchers at MEEI.

 

[Ambassador]

In the US, you can donate your temporal bone. There is a thread about it here: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/temporal-bone-registry-—-sign-up-to-help-research-for-a-cure.14864/
Not sure if there is something similar in the UK.


This is incorrect. Temporal bones are used for research especially, though not limited to, researchers at MEEI.

This is an ear.

 

[Aaron123]

This is an ear.

No, that's the pinna (as @GregCA mentioned). The ear has three parts: outer, middle, and inner, and the pinna is part of the outer ear.

 

[Bassplayer]

Perhaps I could leave my ears for research into human flight...

 

[Ambassador]

Auricle

 

[Tinker Bell]

Interesting post. Donating ears does have value. This article mentions how researchers used the middle ears from cadavers.

It's in the fourth paragraph: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/3d-printed-hearing-middle-ear/amp/