Nexus - 0401 - New Times Magazine-pages

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ence as an ENT specialist, working with hearing-impaired factory Tomatis, is to make students listen to tapes made up of sounds, workers and, more significantly, with opera singers including rhythms and frequencies specific to a given country. In order to Maria Callas, which first instilled the belief that chronic vocal come attuned to American speech sounds and rhythms prior to problems may be caused not by structural deformities in the lar- filming Green Card, Gérard Depardieu again consulted Tomatis, ynx but by listening to one's own voice—a mechanism he calls this time to undergo an American-style 'sonic rebirth’. "self listening". This convinced him that one can reproduce Although Tomatis's method is now increasingly applied by vocally only what one's ear can hear. By analysing his patients’ teachers and therapists to improve performance in language and hearing he discovered that not only does each person possess a vocal skills and to treat children's learning disabilities ranging unique auditory curve—its peaks and troughs indicating which from dyslexia and poor concentration and memory to disorders parts of the sound spectrum the ear registers more or less clear- such as stuttering and even autism (which Tomatis interprets as ly—but that those frequencies we hear least or not at all always the ultimate expression of a child's refusal to listen), many of its correspond to the range we cannot easily reproduce when speak- underlying theories remain controversial. Professionals struggle, ing or singing. This discovery was formally recognised as the for example, with his view of the ear as not merely an instrument Tomatis Effect by the French Academy of Sciences in 1957. for hearing and maintaining balance, but as a generator which Because of its direct neural connection with the left hemi- uses sound's vibrational energy to charge the entire organism via sphere—the side of the brain that governs logical thought- one, viscera and neural impulses—in particular, stimulating cor- processes and activities including speech—the right ear normally tical energy and brain activity and so providing the motivation for is, or should be, the dominant or ‘leading’ ear: the 'musical' ear in speech, communication and learning. the case of singers and musicians. The right ear therefore plays a Because the tiny sensory hairs in the inner ear are far more crucial role in the vital feedback loop between speech or song and dense in the area which responds to high frequency than in that the act of listening. Any imbalance or interference with the func- reserved for the low range, Tomatis claims there can be little mys- tion of the right ear causes the voice to become distorted and tery as to which sounds possess the greater energising proper- speech to lose its fluency. ties—or why. "It is well known that the auditory apparatus acts as By fine-tuning his electronic equipment, Tomatis was able to a charging or energising dynamo," Tomatis told me. "It furnishes identify the crucial role of high-fre- the current to feed the brain." He uses quency sounds, from 4,000 cycles a combination of Mozart's music and per second (Hz) upwards, in listen- Could the ear also actasa Gregorian chants throughout all ing and speech. Lack of vocal fluen- . stages and applications of his method cy, musicality or tone becomes most regulator of other bodily since he claims that their rich harmon- noticeable when we are exposed pri- functions, as Tomatis believes? ic structure and predominant high-fre- marily to low frequencies—for quency range possess a unique gener- example, when the bass on a stereo Given that almost all cranial ating power. jeu tuned rah Fo wnich | erves lead to the ear, this is Jl i cra st aus attuned. Such ill-effects become perhaps not as fanciful as it believes? Given that almost all cra- more pronounced when the higher sounds nial nerves lead to the ear, this is per- frequencies, to which the right ear is most sensitive, are diminished or screened out altogether. Since the haps not as fanciful as it sounds. Tomatis is not the only person to make the connection between listen- high-frequency band—typically between 2,000 and 4,000 Hz— ing to music, chanting or singing, and feelings of improved well- covers the upper range of the human voice in most languages, giv- being and greater energy. In England, sound therapist Jill Purce ing it its timbre, the degree to which this is, or is not, picked up by has long recognised and applied the healing benefits of sound and the ear is obviously crucial to the ear-voice feedback theory. Tibetan overtone chanting to treat a host of physical and psycho- The implications of his discovery for foreign-language students logical ills. According to Tomatis, the most plausible rationale is intriguing, since it suggests that there is a sound scientific basis for these positive effects is that all the vital organs and processes for the lack of a ‘good ear' for languages which no amount of tra- are influenced by the ear through their tie-in with the tenth cranial ditional learning can alter. According to Tomatis's findings, each nerve, which directly and indirectly, via branch lines, links the ear nation possesses a collective ethnic ‘ear’, and inhabitants' spectrum to every other organ in the body. Unusual as it may be, this per- of hearing is governed by a ‘preferred frequency' which is also spective of the ear illustrates why so many ‘bad listeners' not only reflected in their speech. Thus the German ‘ear’, says Tomatis, have speech and learning difficulties but also, along with their ears between 100 and 3,000 Hz; the French between 1,000 and flat, colourless voices, suffer more generalised symptoms of 2,000; the English between 2,000 and 12,000; the American fatigue and depression, and faulty coordination, balance and pos- between 750 and 3,000. The apparent ease with which the Slavs ture. It also indicates why improvement in mood and energy lev- master foreign languages is due to their extraordinarily broad els is one of the most immediately noticeable effects of the train- range of hearing, from 100 to 8,000 Hz. "Their aptitude is more ing program—in which Tomatis's invention, the "electronic ear", for hearing than for speaking," he explains. The theory could superimposes 'perfect' hearing, allowing the patient to listen to explain why, for instance, the French experience difficulty in tun- music, speech or their own voice, but electronically doctored to ing into the English but not the American ear: the American band emphasise the higher frequencies until their own ear is sufficient- peaks at 1,500 Hz, not far removed from that of the French. ly conditioned to pick these up naturally. The success of his method as a linguistic aid comes from teach- But how and why do so many of us become bad listeners in the ing students to modify their hearing, and so adapt their way of first place? According to Billie Thompson, Director of the Sound, talking to correspond to the frequency range of their chosen lan- Listening and Learning Center in Phoenix, Arizona, 'good' listen- guage. The fastest, most effective way of doing this, says ing may be impaired at any age, through accident, emotional regulator of other bodily functions, as Tomatis believes? Given that almost all cranial nerves lead to the ear, this is perhaps not as fanciful as it sounds. 46 - NEXUS Could the ear also act as a OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1996