All Listening Is Not The Same

During the past 10 years many listening therapies have become available, and almost universally they claim that they are derived or based on the theories of the French physician and ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Alfred Tomatis. At the Spectrum Center , we have been employing the Tomatis Method for the past seventeen years; we find that we are increasingly called upon to explain the differences between the methods and which is most suitable for different clients. We hear comments such as other methods take less time, cost less, can be done at home and sound better, to name the few. In order to understand and survey some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods and technologies available it is first necessary to become acquainted with what Tomatis’ theories were and how they are executed through the technologies of listening therapies.

Theoretical Basis

Tomatis, made his pioneering discovery that “the voice can only produce the harmonics that the ear is able to perceive.” This identification of the role that the ear played in vocal production became the first law of what later came to be called the “Tomatis Effect.” Tomatis also discovered that if the missing frequencies could be restored to the ear, through a device he called the Electronic Ear (EE) they would be returned to the voice and with sufficient training of the ear and voice through the EE, the changes would become permanent. These discoveries had important implications for populations as diverse as singers and children having difficulty in acquiring language.

Tomatis came to believe that the ear was much more than an organ of hearing. It is, he maintained in charge of functions including; energizing and regulating the brains state of alertness and attention; coordinating posture and movement; and connecting our intentions and thoughts with our physical and verbal transactions upon our environment. Tomatis’ life mission eventually became the understanding of how the ear was physiologically involved in acquiring and controlling of the voice and language. To this end he invented several technologies, which could be used to rehabilitate the ear related functions of alertness, attention, coordination and voice.

Equipment

Initially, Tomatis’ research was to distinguish what differentiated a good listener from a poor one. He discovered that a good listener is able to tune into the high frequency sounds that carry the consonants and consequently the meaning of language, while at the same time inhibiting the low frequency sounds which interfere with this perception. Tomatis developed a gating mechanism, which was intended to train the ear to make fine discriminations of sound in this desired high frequency range. This electronic gate was the first feature of the EE and is emulated in all listening programs. The gate on the EE is activated by the intensity and high frequency content of the music and voice. The LiFT has the most similar gate. On the Berard machine and derivatives the gate is activated by the volume and is played loudly for that reason. On the other methods that are CD based and hence don’t involve an electronic equivalent of the EE, the gate is either pre-recorded or digitally approximated.

Another feature that works closely with the gate and is unique to the EE is called the channels. According to Tomatis, the two middle ear muscles perform the physical act of focusing the ear. Changing the channels setting on the EE allows the practitioner to adjust the tension between the two muscles in the listener’s ear, in accordance with the profile determined by a listening test. This helps the listener to physically direct his attention and actually increase the perception of the incoming sounds that are most meaningful while at the same time dampening the other competing sounds.

Sound travels to the inner ear through two mechanisms, air conduction and bone conduction. Sound travels via air through the outer ear to the middle ear where it is eventually changed to bone conduction and sent to the inner ear. In bone conduction sound travels through the skull, bypassing the middle ear, directly to the inner ear.

Bone conduction always travels faster than air conduction. Tomatis developed the feature on the EE called the Delays that allows the practitioner to manipulate the time delay between air and bone conduction, so that when wearing the earphones, bone conduction is heard first, but then allows an even longer period to become acclimated to this sound (Bone) before having to analyze it (Air).
Some of the Listening Therapies include bone conduction on their more advanced models (Samonas and LiFT) but have yet to integrate them with the other features. No other programs at this time include the delays featured on the EE.

These features (Channels and Delay) are integrated with the Gate and work in conjunction with each other. In the Tomatis EE each one is relegated by a separate dial, which allows the Tomatis practitioner to create a wide range of separate settings for individual clients depending upon their ailment specific needs. In skilled hands, the EE can become an instrument, like a piano, versus a machine like a radio. In this analogy, the machine, like the radio, does all the work, and does the same work for everybody who listens to a particular station. And, of course, everyone can use it and benefit from it, but it does not require any particular skill. On the other hand, the player on an instrument such as the piano can create unique results, but it takes years of practice. Someone trained and experienced on the EE eventually may become a virtuoso and achieve unique results in the manner of a customized therapy.

A very important feature on the EE is the ability to progressively filter out sound frequencies below 9000 hertz. The Tomatis Method is based on a developmental model of how we all learned to listen- a process that started in the womb. According to Tomatis, the fetus hears only high frequencies. The EE is able to re-create this early listening by progressively filtering out the lower frequencies on both musical and speech recordings. This gives the ear an extensive period of high frequency listening that trains it to accommodate to and focus on those important sounds that lay the foundation for language and communication. Only the LiFT and TLP attempt to emulate progressive filtration and they do it to a lesser extent. The Berard filters are specific to certain frequencies and address specific sound sensitivities.

Tomatis discovered that the right ear has faster neuron pathways to the left (language) hemisphere, which ideally, should have a controlling role in language and motor expression. Experiment and observation will readily show that when the right ear is not dominant, expression (and even thinking!) becomes muddled and unfocused. The EE through a mechanism called the Balance helps us to progressively strengthen the right ear in its role of audio-vocal dominance. The Berard machines are similar to the EE in this aspect and LiFT attempts this though not to the same extent. The other pre-recorded programs give some emphasis to the Right ear but not progressively.

The microphone along with the gate is the most important feature of the EE. The microphone completes the loop in the auditory-vocal re-education process; it is the glue for permanent change of the Tomatis Effect. In a typical microphone session, the client hears his own voice through the EE, which is modified through the gate, channels, delays, filters and balance, so as to accentuate the high frequencies. With this high frequency feedback the client is able to incorporate these frequencies into his voice, which in turn enables the EE to gate better. This becomes the loop of better perception enabling better vocal production, which in turn enables even better perception. The active microphone session is only emphasized in one of the other listening therapy methods, the LiFT.

Training and Programming

The aim of programming is to provide re-education of the ear by re-enacting the development of listening from the fetal stage (high frequencies) through birth and then through the development of language. Through programming we are able to modify the many functions of the ear. The EE is the instrument. The programmer is the virtuoso. Tomatis contributed much to our understanding of the normal and abnormal development of the hearing and listening function in the human being. Knowing how to design programs and how to adjust them is the critical human “know how” of the Tomatis Method. This requires lengthy training of the Tomatis Practitioner, the intensity of which is not equaled in any of the other currently available methods.

This article is meant to accompany a more in-depth article and comparison chart that can be found on our website at spectrumcenter.com. This survey is not an attempt to find fault with any of the other listening programs as we use many in conjunction with what we do at the Spectrum Center. This is rather an attempt to understand what it means to be based on Tomatis’ theories and to answer the question of what is it we are trying to do and how we are in fact achieving it. I hope this can open a dialogue so that we all can make more informed choices.

©2008

Valerie Dejean, OT
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Certified Tomatis Consultant