All about the Tomatis method
The Tomatis method is a sensory stimulation technique that improves listening and stimulates the brain. It uses specially designed devices for repeated listening sessions, which gradually help the brain to analyse sensory messages better. The Tomatis effect, which creates a unique perceptual contrast in sound, makes the muscles of the ear tense and then relax. This can support personal development and change anyone's life.
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You can hear well and still listen badly.
The sound message is heard correctly but poorly analysed on an emotional level. The brain protects itself by putting up barriers, which can encourage many disorders to develop.
We say that “listening is disturbed”.
The TOMATIS Method stimulates your brain.
You do repeated listening sessions using devices specially designed to stimulate the brain and gradually help it to analyse sensory messages better.
We say that “the ear tunes in to listen”
Good listening can change your life.
Your ear is not just for hearing. It stimulates your brain and governs your balance. Good listening is therefore essential for personal development.
The electronic gating behind the TOMATIS effect
TOMATIS devices are designed to create a unique perceptual contrast in sound. This effect makes the muscles of the ear tense and then relax. This back-and-forth comes from a sudden switch from low frequencies, which need no effort of adjustment from the ear, to high frequencies, which require a great deal of adjustment. This activity can be compared to a workout: through repetition and gradual exercise of the ear, it optimises the transmission of sound messages to the brain.
Understanding the Tomatis effect on the ear and the brain
The Tomatis® Method is a technique of sensory stimulation through sound. The sound is transmitted both by bone conduction, through a vibration at the top of the skull, and by air conduction, through the outer ear. This sound has first been processed in the laboratory to give it the Tomatis® effect, and so stimulate the whole of the inner ear, in both its hearing and its motor functions. In practice, the sound travels through the eardrum, then by bone conduction, and by reflex action triggers the contraction and then the relaxation of 2 muscles, the “stapedius” and the “tensor tympani”. This effect relies on a double mechanism of perceptual contrast in sound (a double alternation of timbre and intensity) designed to “surprise” the ear.
These muscles in turn stimulate, again through vibration, the organs called the cochlea and the vestibule. The cochlea and the vestibule are lined with tiny cells called hair cells, whose job is to convert this vibration into electrical stimuli that feed a vast nerve network called the reticular formation. The reticular formation controls the overall level of brain activity. In other words, the cochlea and the vestibule energise the brain; we say that the inner ear has a “cortical charge” function
The vestibule also informs the brain of the slightest body movement, and so affects rhythm and balance. The consistency of the message it sends is therefore fundamental, and it needs to be stimulated effectively.
In their own words
“Kevin was very receptive, even though classical music wasn't really his favourite kind of music.”
“This is the result of your support and your method, which really took a weight off my mind and helped Hakim move forward and gain confidence in himself.”
“My dad and my friends tell me I've become more mature, that I express myself much better, that my questions are more thought through.”