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 arguably along with the microphone is one of the most important in delivering the Tomatis Effect.  It is emulated to some degree 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 volume activates the gate and the music is played loudly for that reason.  Some methods have chosen to flatten the gate so that it doesn’t intrude on the quality of the music. However this defeats the delivery of the Tomatis Effect, which is the purpose of the gate.

If you can’t hear the gate, a shift from listening to a Base channel to a Treble channel, your not getting the Tomatis Effect.

On the other Tomatis Based methods that are CD or I-POD delivered  and hence don’t involve an electronic equivalent of the EE, the gate is either pre-recorded or digitally approximated. This means that there is no variation possible.  The ability to create variations in the gate from the input of other functions of the EE is very important in the delivery of the Tomatis Method and only available on the Tomatis EE.

Channels:

Another feature that works closely with the gate and is unique to the EE are 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. The channel can be adjusted to create the maximum level of tension in the middle ear when the gate is activated all the way to the most relaxed level depending in the needs of the listener. Initially maximum tension is essential for activation of the listening (paying attention) function. Later once the ear is listening better we are able to adjust the channels to the shape of the specific frequencies of the language that the person speaks. This is especially important during the audio-vocal work.

Air and Bone Conduction:

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. Air conduction is delivered monaurally to the right and left ear though standard over the ear headphone.  Bone conduction is delivered through a tiny vibrator that is placed on the top of the head.  On the EE, Bone and Air conduction each have their own separate volume control so that you can program to listen in either one or some combination of the two.

Delays:

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).

By manipulating the delay function you allow the listener a longer period to prepare himself for the incoming sound before having to grasp its’ meaning. This feature is very important for people with sensitivities and for people with any kind of processing disorder.  The difference between people who have listening difficulties and those who don’t, frequently is a question of how quickly they can process information.  By giving the ear extra time, a warning that important information is coming, you are able to train the ear to listen more quickly.

These features (Channels, Delay, Bone and Air conduction) are integrated with the Gate and work in conjunction with each other.

Some of the Listening Therapies include bone conduction on their more advanced models but have yet to integrate them with the other features. No other programs at this time include the delays featured on the EE.

Progressive Filters:

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’ ear is particularly attenuated to the high frequencies, which transmit well through the fetal cartilage. In the 1950’s Tomatis first claimed that the fetus was listening to sounds of its mother’s voice. At the time the experts ridiculed Tomatis for this. Tomatis proved to be right. It is now common knowledge that the fetus is learning to recognize the phonemes of speech from the 5th to the 9th month of pregnancy.  The baby is born “hardwired” ready to recognize speech sounds and attach meaning to what he or she hears, until by 18 months the child begins to talk.

This is duplicated by the Tomatis Machine when a recording of the mother's voice is made and then plays it through the equipment. The EE is able to re-create this early listening by progressively filtering out the lower frequencies on both musical and speech recordings.  This give 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. The LiFT and TLP attempt to emulate progressive filtration but they do it to a much lesser extent than Tomatis’ own EE.   The Berard filters are specific to certain frequencies and address specific sound sensitivities and are not intended to recreate a developmental model of how we acquire listening.

Balance:

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.

Microphone:

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. This is the core of Tomatis’ working theory "that the voice can only produce the harmonics that the ear it is able to hear." It involves all the components of the Electronic Ear working in a fine tuned combination. This active microphone session is only emphasized in one of the other listening therapy methods, the LiFT.  In Tomatis-based programs that have included a microphone, it is not integrated through the other features and thus has no opportunity to reinforce the Tomatis Effect.

In the Tomatis EE each feature is relegated separately, which allows the Tomatis practitioner to create a wide range of separate settings for individual listeners 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.

There are other things to consider besides the features on the EE that produce the “Tomatis Effect”

Input- What we listen to - Music and Voice

We need to consider the input, or what is transmitted to the EE that makes it work.  In the early days the main input to the EE was the human voice.  A singer would sing into a microphone that was filtered and gated through the EE.  Later as Tomatis worked with developmental and learning disabilities the clients either couldn’t talk or their voices were not of sufficient quality to make the machine gate.  Therefore Tomatis needed another source of input to re-educate the ear. 

Tomatis came from a classical music background and he searched extensively for music that had the correct harmonics to make the EE gate in a manner consistent with a good voice.  He found some of the music of Mozart most compatible.  Not all Mozart but specific pieces that resemble the human voice most approximately.  He started to use this music to train the listener in the high frequency ranges of fetal listening.  The choice of music is what allows the machine to gate even when fully filtered without having to play the music loud.

Please note that Tomatis did not use Mozart to deliver the Mozart Effect. Tomatis used the music, frequently Mozart that best allow the EE to deliver the “Tomatis Effect”. In this way the Tomatis Method is more of a “sound” therapy than a “music” therapy

Human voice and particularly one’s own voice is critical to closing the loop of listening in the process of reeducating the ear as was described in detail when discussing the microphone.  Other human voices that are used in the Tomatis Method are pre-recorded input that allows the client to repeat certain single words and sentences.  These repeat texts allow for practice of words that are rich in high frequencies or sibilants.  Often repeat texts are filtered to encourage listening in increasingly higher frequency ranges. Others are designed to hear differences in similar sound such as “f” and “th”.  All of the inputs (music and voice) are modified though all the other features of the EE.

Monaural vs. Stereo Sound

There are very sound reasons for the Tomatis Method being delivered through monaural sound even if it doesn’t sound as symphonic as stereo sound.  All of Tomatis’ early research was into what distinguished a good listener from a bad one and he determined quite early that the two ears have different roles in listening.  The right ear heard higher frequency sounds better than the left ear and the right ear had faster neurological pathways to the left hemisphere of the brain, the side of the brain we use to understand language as well as to organize our speech.  The right ear also has a faster pathway to the voice box. . The reason that the Tomatis sound is monaural is that this is easier for the brain to process since both ears are listening to the same thing verses stereo where the sound is different in each ear. This is, after all, therapy!  Developmentally it is very important to train the ear in the easiest form of processing before moving to more advanced levels of processing stereo sound.  In the Tomatis Method of re-educating the ear to listen better we start with monaural sound of equal volume and gradually encourage the right ear to gain control of the listening function.

Stereo presentation of music is often touted as an improvement of the Tomatis Method. However stereo (vs. monaural) sound creates complications in delivering the Tomatis Effect. Since the music drives the gate, the fact that each ear is hearing something different in a stereo presentation also means that each ear perceives the gate at different intervals.

This doesn’t make sense as a treatment neurologically. The goal of the gate is to train the ear (or more accurately, the auditory system) to pay attention. The Gating, the Delay, the Bone and the Air Conduction, are all programmed together to facilitate paying attention. This is complicated enough for the client’s auditory system and for the therapist’s programming efforts. With Stereo, you have made the system exponentially more complicated and the odds are that you will have created a distraction, rather than an improvement, in the client’s listening. And furthermore, giving some due respect to the man who’s created the method, stereo delivery is not at all consistent with Tomatis’ theories.  Tomatis was very knowledgeable about stereo and knew it was not possible to incorporate it within the Tomatis Method delivery system. 

Secondly it is not possible to have the delay between bone and air conduction when music is delivered in stereo, As discussed earlier this delay function is a very important feature of the electronic ear as it allows the person to prepare for incoming sound.

Length of the Program:

Tomatis experimented for thirty years on how best to deliver his program.  There were many variations from people listening six-eight hours a day to people listening a couple of times a week for up to a year.  He eventually came to the standard of listening for sixty hours over thirty day done in a three-month time span. In order to change neurological encoding, the re-education of the ear needs to be delivered intensely for a sustained amount of time. It takes one to one and a half hours to get the brain to change how it is listening.  During the last half hour to forty-five minutes the brain is using the new listening.  The next day the brain goes back to its old habit and we need to reawaken it.  We do this every day for ten to fifteen days and now a new habit of listening has been established.  We now have a four to six week break to allow the client to use his “new ear” before we induce new changes.  Two more eight to ten-day intensives are done over the next two months and specific to the individuals pace, the next development stages are induced.  This is the standard program for a determined listening disorder.  Programs for enhancement, foreign language acquisition, accent reduction, and musicians can be accomplished in less time.

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.   It also takes clinical experience. My (Valerie) programs have changed radically from fifteen years ago when I started the Spectrum Center. This is by way of saying that experience has taught me some of the subtleties of designing programs.

This survey is an attempt to understand what it means to have a machine or delivery system (CD, Ipod or internet streaming) that is based on Tomatis's theories and if in fact they are achieving the full Tomatis Effect. In examining all that goes into achieving the Tomatis Effect it would seem that they are not. We also hoped to stress the importance of full gating, channels,  delays, full filtering, microphone work and mother's voice recording   as essential to achieving the full Tomatis Effect. Of course, one could argue that a little Tomatis is better than nothing, and I would say that in the hands of a well-trained practitioner, it beats having nothing. After all, if you don't play, you can't win.

Valerie Dejean