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Tomatis, Autism and Sensory Integration

.......Tomatis Topics

T he Three Laws of the Tomatis Effect

The First Tomatis Law

The studies that Tomatis was able to reproduce in a language lab to substantiate what he was seeing in the singers included studies such as these:

"If a subject emits a vowel into a microphone, which then goes through a system of filters which suppresses a specific band of frequencies before it is fed back through headphones placed over the subject's ears, the suppressed band disappears from the spectrum of the vowel voiced by the subject. In the same way, with all subjects presenting an auditory loss, the harmonics related to that auditory loss are absent from the voice of the subject.

The Second Law

These discoveries led to the development of the first Electronic Ear. He initially treated these individuals through a series of amplifiers and filters "If the sounds can be restored to the ear, the voice will immediately restore the missing sounds" He wanted to find a way that would enable the individual to make permanent changes in their listening that would allow for them to have a permanent change in their voice.

In 1954 Dr. Tomatis built his first electronic ear. He found that if treated in time, before permanent hearing lose, he was able to restore functioning in these people. The singer could sing again there was nothing wrong with their voices the problem was in their ears.

The Third Law - Law of retention:

"If the ear is conditioned sufficiently with one's own voice with good quality, the changes will be maintained" A. A.Tomatis

Tomatis discovered that by conditioning self-listening through modifying (and improving) listening through the electronic ear and introducing audio-vocal control (phonation) through the microphone, he could create lasting changes.

Audiophonology - To hear oneself speak To speak is to listen to oneself. The speaker is the first listener of his voiced language. Self-listening allows the speaker to recognize and measure the intensity of his verbal flow.

Voice quality Voice volume Vocal precision This allows the speaker to recognize (re-cognize) the semantic value of what he is saying, the organization of what he is trying to say. Allows the speaker to recognize the quality of information that he wants to inject into his discourse. In Tomatis' perspective the ear becomes the main organ of control for our outwardly directed vocal information, in other words our language.

C ontrol of the Audio-Phonatory Mechanism

After being sure of it's existence, Tomatis postulated on the neurological circuitry for control of this Audio-Phonatory mechanism. The muscles of audition (hearing) and phonation (speaking) are innervated by the same cranial nerves. The control of facial expression and visceral control are also involved in this complex. These being:

  • Trigeminal (V),
  • Facial (VII),
  • Glossopharyngeal (IX),
  • Vagus (X).

    Trigeminal (V)

  • Motor Control
  • Jaw
  • Tensor Tympani
  • Sensory Control
  • Face The Trigeminal Nerve gives motor control of the jaw and tensor tympani muscle of the middle ear and Sensory (awareness) control of the entire face

    Facial (VII)

  • Innervates the Stapedius muscle
  • Controls muscles of Facial expression
  • innervates the stapedius muscle of the middle ear and the muscles of facial expression

    Glossopharyngeal (IX)

  • Motor control of the voice Vagus (X) Which we think of because of its' control on autonomic functions including arousal, attention and regulation has;
  • branch to the tympanic membrane
  • Motor control of the pharynx and larynx

    Sufficient auditory stimulation will provide a lasting improvement of the ability to listen and consequently better reproduction of sound.

    He saw this feedback loop as a cybernetic loop. Norbert Wiener's theories had not yet traveled to France at the times of Tomatis' thinking, but once he was familiar with the brilliants mathematicians reasoning he say how it described his Auditory-Phonatory Mechanism. Wiener's book entitled "The Study of Control and Communication in Animals and Machines" laid the foundation for the computer revolution. Cybernetics and Society

    • A uditory-Phonatory Mechanism: Once Tomatis recognized that there was an audio-phonatory mechanism and he postulated the neurological circuitry for this control he started looking into more of the specifics. Through his work with singers Tomatis became very much interested in what distinguished a good voice from a bad voice.

    "To say that "the voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear' in no way implies that a person is capable of giving out everything that he perceives.

    A good utterance demands not only a good auditory receptivity but a good self-listening." P 49 This mechanism of self-listening is what separates a good singer from a bad one. The greater the singer the greater the self-control he exercises.

    What were the conditions that afforded the great singer the highest level of control?

    Audio-Vocal Control

    Tomatis postulated that there was a mechanism of audio-vocal control, which he referred to as a Auditory-Phonatory Mechanism. Tomatis experimented with imposing scotoma's (blind spots) on the singer's ears, which prevented them from hearing a particular frequency. In this way he could change the quality of the voice, make the voice more nasal or warmer for that manner if he imposed the curve of a good ear.

    He called this envelope of listening (frequency range) the listening curve. For example by studying the voice of really good singers, Caruso for example, he could determine how he listened, and impose this curve (give the ear of Caruso) to another singer to improve their voice. By hearing with Caruso's ear, one could learn to sing like Caruso. He observed that the really good singers, while they were singing were able to tune into the high frequencies of their voice while tune out the lower frequencies. This was part of their audio-vocal control.

    The role of the Middle Ear in Audio-Vocal Control

    Tomatis understood the importance of the two muscles of the middle ear in audio-vocal control, those being: The tensor tympani, which is attached to the malleus (hammer) and modifies the tension of the tympanic membrane (ear drum) and thereby modulates incoming sound intensity as needed. The stapedius, which attaches to the stapes (stirrup) and accentuates high frequency sound as it is transmitted through the oval window into the inner ear. These two muscles need to work together in protecting the ear against loud (usually low frequency) and aiming the ear at mid and high frequency sounds.

    The Middle Ear Muscles Ant/Physiology

    As we have already discussed Tomatis distinguished between Hearing and Listening. Just like the eye can passively scan the visual field and then switch to actively focus on a specific object, the ear is able to perform such a switch from a passive to an active role. Tomatis postulated and this is now confirmed, that the physiological control of actively focusing (listening) was performed by the action of the two middle ear muscles.