Science and Research

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Science

Prof. Tomatis developed a sophisticated device called the "Electronic Ear" capable of modifying the way in which a subject listened, and, consequently, a subject's way of speaking.

As the auditory sensor is required to adapt to the surrounding sound environment, this function of accommodation is governed by the middle ear. It is therefore on the middle ear that the Electronic Ear acts first. To do so, the electronic switcher contained in the device amplifies the sound rhythm. This allows to induce contractions in the muscles of the hammer and the stirrup bone through successive pulses, acting on the one hand on the convexity of the tympani, when then behave as an acoustic lens, a sort of auditory crystalline lens, and on the other hand on the inner ear, the centre of the sound analysis, through the pressure exerted through the oval window.

This accommodation tends to be quite rapid. It determines the spatial position of the auditory ossicles, allowing to open a given auditory bandwidth and to increase the size of the diaphragm opening according to need.

However, the Electronic Ear doesn't just act on the revitalisation of the muscles of the auditory ossicles; it also enables one to act on parameters such as the latency time, generally depending on the subjects and the situations encountered, since it concerns the time required by our auditory sensor in the accommodation of external messages. This time can seem to be quite long, depending on the circumstances, which are often psychological. It can also have quite a different signification when it is used in songs, traditional airs, and storytelling.

A third function of the Electronic Ear is to allow to play on the precession stemming from bone conduction in relation to air conduction, inducing a phenomenon of "prevision" inherent to the functioning of the inner ear; this parameter is decisive where the integration of a language is concerned, whether maternal or foreign.

Finally, a fourth function of the Electronic Ear allows to establish auditive laterality, in favouring the dominant function of the right ear during the process of self-controlled production of sounds by the subject. Indeed, bad auditive laterality, notably where the use of the left ear is favoured, leads to a dysfunction in vocal emission such as the loss of timbre or arrhythmia.

The Electronic Ear is therefore an indispensable device for the implementation and application of the Tomatis Method. Through its various functions it will in fact allow to train and to develop as required the listening function, which, inevitably introduces a real psychological dimension: listening means wanting to hear, knowing that listening is an active phenomenon whereas hearing is a passive phenomenon.

The objective of the Tomatis Method, therefore, is to develop the listening function and thereby the communication function, notably by making full use of the auditory function so as to give each person the desire and the opportunity to develop his or her full potential.