First-year student Zandy Wong researches hearing loss in mice as a member of the neuroscience scholars program By Jacob deNobel / Published Feb 22, 2021
In the lab of auditory neuroscience professor Amanda Lauer, first-year student Zandy Wong writes project code to help determine levels of hearing loss in mice. As mice can t communicate whether they hear a sound, Wong helps determine if their auditory neurons fire in response to stimuli. Through her research in the lab, Wong works to uncover the mechanics of hearing loss and to better understand her own as well.
Born with conductive hearing loss, Wong is missing part of one of the bones in her left middle ear. When sound enters her ear, it gets processed as vibrations, but because of the missing bone, those vibrations don t make it all the way to the hair cells in the cochlea which transmit sounds as electrical impulses to the brain.