The inner ear is too small to be visualized or biopsied with current high-resolution imaging or tissue biopsy techniques, necessitating research into advanced diagnostics.

“And the reason for that really goes back to the tiny size of the inner ear, to the point that, if you image it using the current state-of-the-art imaging tools that include computer tomography, or a CT scan, or MRI, which is Magnetic Resonance Imaging, you don't see cells in the living human inner ear. You just see a gray or white blob. And the organ is too small to be detectable by technologies of that resolution. Another issue is that you cannot biopsy it. It's so tiny that if you did a tissue biopsy, you would destroy it.”