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Tomatis, Autism and Sensory Integration

..Tomatis vestibular-visual integration cochlear, Vestibular Integrators

V isual (Spatial) Integrator Next on the chain of evolution is sight, which gradually replaces the sense of smell. It is initially monocular, from the time of fish up to birds. It becomes binocular among mammals.

For millions of years this visual integrator superceded and dominated the vestibular integrator. With the advent of the mammalian species the labyrinthine regained its former dominance, forcing the visual analyzer into a subordinate role. Simultaneous control is now exerted at the anterior roots of both medulla and medulla oblongata through the vestibulo-mesencephalic tract, which in turn was able to assume control over the motor nuclei of the VI (abducens), IV (oculomotor), and II (optic) cranial nerve pairs, source of motor nerve function of the eye. This resulted in increased eyeball mobility and in anthropoids eventually resulted in binocular vision. The catalyst for this evolutionary step was the powerful action exerted by the vestibular labyrinth on the visual integrator, reinforcing body image impression and enabling the organism to orient itself in the environment and perceive the environment's characteristics.

Visual Integrator- Developmentally

This vestibular-visual integration is very important developmentally because a baby starts to attach meaning to his visual environment via this double-checking with the vestibular system. Baby develops visual constancy and recognizes that objects are the same no matter which way they are flipped. The baby starts to know if he is to the left, right, over, under, in front of, or behind an object, as well as how these objects relate to him, long before he knows the words for these orientations. In fact it is hard to learn the words for these prepositions if you don't "get" the physical experience of these positions through good vestibular-visual integration.

The vestibular system provides the foundation for accurately interpreting information from our visual field. Therefore it has a major impact on the development of visual perception. Developmentally the visual system depends on the vestibular system to make sense out of what one sees. Space perception (where we are in space/directionality), visual perception (spatial orientation of object and symbols such as letters), and even linguistic concepts of prepositions, are end products of sensory integration that are dependent upon good vestibular-visual integration.

C ochlea (Linguistic) Integrator

The Linguistic Integrator

The vestibular system and the cochlear, the part of the ear that analyses sound, are anatomically joined and form what we call the inner ear. Tomatis thought of them as one system - the Vestibular Cochlear System The paired VIII cranial nerves carry sensory information to the brain from both the balance and hearing parts of the inner ear. Vestibular-Cochlear Nerve. Even when the sensory pathways separate, the auditory and vestibular systems lie closely together throughout the nervous system. This allows for much opportunity for sensory integration between the vestibular and auditory systems. Sensory integration disorders that involve vestibular processing can impact the area of speech and language development. Ayres found in her research that therapy aimed to improve the function of the vestibular system could also result in improved language.

Tomatis discovered that faulty sensory information from the ear could affect vocal output. When children mishear sounds, they will misarticulate them also. This can have a significant impact on speech development. Faulty sensory information can also affect auditory perception. The auditory system is required to interpret all the sounds of spoken language and attach linguistic meaning to them. For example, a dog is able to hear as well or better than humans; however the dog's ear isn't able to separate the speech stream into meaningful words that he can understand. This requires auditory perception and auditory processing. Together they provide the foundation for understanding language - spoken or written. When we mishear sound through faulty perception and processing, we have difficulty attaching these sounds to the visual symbols for them (letters). Because we mishear the sounds we then misspell them. So problems with reading and writing can be associated with an auditory problem, not just a visual problem. Although we separate auditory perception and processing for diagnostic reasons we often refer to difficulties with them under the single title of "auditory processing disorders."

Auditory processing disorders are often related to a disorder of processing within the vestibular system and to difficulties in integrating sensory information between the vestibular and auditory systems. The auditory system needs the stable base provided by the vestibular system in order to process information. Much like the visual system, which has to reference what it sees through the vestibular system, the auditory system also must perform a similar reference. Without stability from the vestibular system, it is difficult for the auditory system to accurately interpret the sound stream. The cochlea integrator follows, and it radically changes all previous relationships between the various neuronal components. The cochlea takes control of the system and, in conjunction with the vestibule progressively induces man's characteristic upright posture, verticality. Only man benefits from this integration; no other animal has achieved it. The last stage is inductive rather than evolutionary, a product of that highly sophisticated structure unique to man: language.

Stimulated by the language potential the vestibular labyrinth, which acts like a gyroscope controlling the organism's spatial equilibrium, acquired a new addition, the cochlea. To the gyroscope was added a sextant. To equilibrium was added navigation. While the labyrinth maintains the organism's equilibrium in the environment, the cochlea navigates the organism through the environment. When man acquired the ability to sense where he was going he was able to stand upright. He was no longer a prisoner of the physical and visual contact with the ground. Standing upright, maintaining his equilibrium, navigating successfully by means of an innate control center designed to receive, send and nonitor messages, man became capable of the most sophisticated, most abstract performance of all: the reception and transmission of speech.

Language function's ultimate induction, vertical posture provided the physical fields necessary for the analog transposition for language potential to speech itself. The body must assimilate language in terms of both motor and sensory function in order for human speech to materialize. The Cochlear (linguistic) Integrator, which gathers nerve tracts for the dorsal and ventral nuclei, connects with the vestibular analyzers through the surface network on the cerebellum (8), then returns to stimulate the brain through the frontal and parietal nerve tracts and some of the fronto-pontic and parieto-pontic fibers (16). The Cochlear Integrator provides the means by which sound stimulating the cochlea travels to the brain stem through the vestibular-cochlear cranial nerve and up the lateral tract of Reil (2) to the medial geniculate body (3) of the thalamus. Tracts project from the thalamus to the auditory reception areas of the temporal lobe (3 ascending). Multiple tracts project from the thalamic relay nuclei to the cerebral cortex. (12, 13, 14, 15, 20) Tomatis said that the thalamus is of central importance in understanding why his Method works. So did Ayres

T he Vestibular Integrator The vestibular system detects motion and gravity, and provides us with our sense of balance. It tells us where we are in space. Righting and Equilibrium Reactions are dependent on the vestibular system The vestibular system is a very old sensory system and was the first sensory system to develop on this planet. The vestibular system is the first sensory system to develop in the womb.

Because of this early development the vestibular system has many connections with the rest of the brain, which develops around it; consequently it is believed to provide the foundation for many other functions. One of the functions that is particularly influenced by the vestibular system is a person's muscle tone. The vestibular system particularly influences the muscle tone that helps us resist the influence of gravity.