Wei Dong Ph. D

Nearly 1/3 of all active military members suffer from a blast/noise-related ear injury. Research in hearing loss has been of great interest to VA health services because it accelerates the improvement of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of hearing impairment and associated medical conditions. 

My primary research interest is in hearing problems and my long-term goal is not only to understand how the ear works but to use that knowledge to enhance the power of noninvasive probes of the ear function, to address the urgent need for the implementation of appropriate protection, treatment, and intervention of hearing loss in the military population to improve rehabilitation. This can only be accomplished by finding the cause of hearing impairment, localizing the damaged areas, and understanding the circumstances that lead to the impact. My research group uses several cutting-edge technologies to directly measure sub-nano-scaled sound/electric-induced vibrations from ear structures and we are currently among the major driving forces worldwide to understand how normal or damaged ears process sound.  My group made significant contributions to understanding the biologically and physically active nonlinear processing of sound along the auditory pathway, in both the forward and reverse directions, and the consequences of damaged structure(s) in impaired ears. 

Four major areas of study embody our prior and ongoing contributions to research on the mechanics of hearing involved in all segments of the normal and impaired auditory systems. These are:

1. Effects of Middle Ear Damage/Repair/Reconstruction: Investigation into the consequences of middle ear damage on the initial sound processing stages and evaluation of repair and reconstruction techniques to enhance the transmission of sounds from the atmosphere to the cochlea, the inner ear.
2. Effects of Cochlear (Sensory) Damage: Exploration of the impact of cochlear damage on the processing of sounds, focusing on frequency and temporal analysis and examination of the resulting loss of resolution, contributing to difficulties in perceiving sounds.
3. Variations of Otoacoustic Emissions (OAEs) in Damaged Ears: Study of variations in OAEs, byproducts of the cochlear nonlinear process, in normal ears with a goal to enhance their utility for more precise monitoring of hearing loss.
4. Development of New Methodologies and Diagnostic Tools: Pioneering efforts in developing novel methodologies for diagnostic tools to differentiate various types of hearing losses and utilization of technologies such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the real-time assessment of both ear structural and functional damage and for efficient and cost-effective diagnoses in otology.

The quality of our research has long been recognized, which enable us not only in maintaining a strong program that translates fundamental research findings into clinical applications (continuously supported by NIH and RRD), but also in establishing extensive collaborations with scientists and clinicians locally, around the nation, and the world serving to increase the recognition and scope of research in ear mechanics and hearing loss. 

Recent publications

• Dong W, SWF Meenderink (2022), “Imaging the Ear Anatomy and Function Using Optical Coherence Tomography Vibrometry”, Seminars in Hearing. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-1770154.
• Meenderink SWF and Dong W, Organ of Corti vibrations are dominated by longitudinal motion in vivo, Communications Biology, 2022, Commun Biol. 2022 Nov 24;5(1):1285. 
• Meenderink SWF, Lin X, Park BH, Dong W, Sound Induced Vibrations Deform the Organ of Corti Complex in the Low-Frequency Apical Region of the Gerbil Cochlea for Normal Hearing : Sound Induced Vibrations Deform the Organ of Corti Complex. .J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2022 Oct;23(5):579-591 
• Meenderink WF, Lin X, and Dong W (2021), “Using electrocochleography to detect sensory and neural damages in a gerbil model”, Scientific Reports (2021) 11:19557