Hearing loss is considered the most common sensory disorder in human population that occurs at all ages worldwide and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is the most common type of hearing loss. Various insults could induce the SNHL, including acoustic trauma, ear and brain tumors, aging, noise exposure, or ototoxic medications or chemicals. SNHL is caused by the irreversible loss of sensory hair cell and the degeneration of spiral ganglion neuron. SNHL is not yet curable because of the irreversible death of hair cells and the degeneration of spiral ganglion neurons in the cochlea. Recent years, exciting animal studies on signaling pathway manipulation, gene therapy, and stem cell transplantation as well as pharmaceutical agents demonstrated that hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons could be regenerated and indicated that hearing loss might eventually be curable in the future. Neural plasticity is the key feature for the spiral ganglion neurons and hair cells and is especially important for the new regenerated spiral ganglion neurons and hair cells. This special issue will focus on recent advances in reestablishing the neural plasticity of regenerated spiral ganglion neurons and sensory hair cells.

In this special issue, we invite authors to submit high-quality original research articles and reviews. Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to submit their work including both basic and translational research.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Signaling mechanisms
• Cytoskeletal regulation
• Hair cell regeneration
• Spiral ganglion neuron regeneration
• Spiral ganglion neuron refinement and retraction
• Spiral ganglion neuron neurites pruning
• Application of biomaterials in improving the plasticity of spiral ganglion neuron
• Ribbon synapse plasticity
• Noise and drug induced changes in hair cell and spiral ganglion neuron plasticity
• Genetic aspects regulating the plasticity