What is Solisten and how does it work?

Solisten®, the portable application of the Tomatis® Method, is a revolutionary sound training program that strengthens the ear and energizes the brain, improving many areas including auditory and sensory processing, stress, speech and balance. It provides the original evidence-based auditory training program by Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, incorporating complex aspects of the Tomatis Effect through the use of sophisticated electronic functions including gating, delay and precession. The proprietary preprogrammed music uses filtered levels, and bone and air conduction.

Here at BPTC, the Solisten® is provided in our center for two phases of 15 days each. Each day you listen for two consecutive hours. After a break of 3-4 weeks, you listen for another 15-day period of two consecutive hours a day. During this period, your Solisten® practitioner monitors your progress.

Every situation is unique. In many situations, the initial 60 hours are sufficient. In some situations, continual listening may be necessary over a longer period of time to achieve greater goals and desires. This is determined together by the Solisten provider and client as his or her program progresses.

How does Solisten® work?

Solisten® is a revolutionary sound listening training program at the crossroad of discoveries made by Dr Alfred A. Tomatis in the 1950s with the latest findings in neuroscience and cognitive science.

Dr. Tomatis was a French ear, nose and throat physician (ENT) who pioneered the field of sound therapy and auditory stimulation.

Dr. Tomatis' research led him to draw the distinction between hearing and listening and to emphasize the links between the ear, brain and the whole body.

Based on his discoveries, Dr. Tomatis developed an auditory stimulation program to reactivate the full listening potential of his clients' ears.

Today, Solisten® is the first portable sound training and auditory stimulation program to provide the well-known Tomatis Effect.

Listening vs. Hearing

Hearing is the passive reception of sound while listening is the active participation in what one hears. It's possible to have good hearing - but poor listening. The ear plays a unique and critical role in our day-to-day lives. Beyond auditory function (the perception of sounds), the ear assumes two more functions:

The dynamization function The human ear can be compared to a dynamo which provides the brain with energy and thus requires stimulation. The quality of the sounds produce effects on the level of energy of the brain. Tomatis found that higher frequency sounds are better for brain stimulation.

The vestibular function The ear plays an important role in posture and balance control and influences a large part of the muscular system of the body. Not a single muscle of the body can move without the interplay of the vestibular system and its connection to the brain.

Listening problems are the root cause
of many learning and communication difficulties.

When this dysfunction occurs, the brain will order the ear to function less efficiently in return. This opens the way to everyday listening problems: mistaken interpretations during verbal exchanges such as the, impression that certain sounds are aggressive, lack of comprehension, difficulty concentrating, learning difficulties and so on.

The Tomatis Effect

The middle ear muscles which are stimulated by the electronic gating

The Tomatis Effect demonstrated that if you change the way the ear works, you affect all the body's major functions. These changes, in turn, can produce profound transformations in how we function.

The ear and nervous system are intricately connected; so, as the ear expands its capacities, the brain also expands its capabilities and states of awareness.

Listening is disturbed when there is a dysfunction of the two muscles located in the middle ear. The role of these muscles is to enable the precise and harmonious integration of acoustic information in the inner ear, and from there to the brain. When the brain is disturbed, it triggers protective mechanisms which inhibit listening.

Solisten® which provides the Tomatis Effect restores these two auditory muscles to their full working ability.

How can Solisten technically stimulate the auditory system?

The process used in the Solisten® device is called electronic gating. Electronic gating is a system discovered by Tomatis that makes use of and reactivates the strategies of perceptual organization and management of our acoustic environment so the brain is normally able to function when listening is not disturbed.

This system of alternating between two acoustic channels (called "gating") enables a person to regain the use of and even to develop the auditory strategies that the brain normally uses when listening is not disturbed. It works on the principle of perceptual contrast by alternating between two audio channels transmitting the same music. This music is in different timbres and intensity levels, causing our brain to work in such a way that our auditory attention is triggered if these two conditions are met:

• The new or unpredictable character of the acoustic message;
• An increase in the intensity of the message.

The gating is precise and respects these two conditions in its application.

This stimulation is made through specially processed sounds designed from many years of practice and experience in our company.

What is the Tomatis Method?

Alfred Tomatis, MD, was an Otolaryngologist (Ear Nose and Throat Specialist) whose scientific training and drive to help his patients led him to develop the aptly named Electronic Ear and the Tomatis Method. Dr. Tomatis developed the Electronic Ear, a device for training the ear for optimal listening. With the information that he assessed from his listening tests, the speaking voice, chant and the music of Mozart is then filtered through the Electronic Ear. This enabled him to exercise and literally train the ear to listen more efficiently. Together they delivered the improvements he was seeking. The complete program of the Tomatis Method (a program of auditory integration) requires a minimum of 60 hours of listening, using the sophisticated equipment available in accredited Tomatis Centers.

Are There Differences between the Tomatis Method and Solisten?

Yes and no. Both provide the renowned Tomatis Effect. Tomatis developed specific functions in the Electronic Ear that provide gating and two delays processed through the EE and relayed through special headphones with bone and air conduction. The result of these programmed and combined functions is called the Tomatis Effect.

Dr. Tomatis began his work with individuals, working with their voices. He invented the Electronic Ear to strengthen speech and voice quality. While the Tomatis Method offers active voice work, Solisten obtains the renowned Tomatis Effect without active work and voice recordings. Solisten begins with an initial interview and screening. It does not require the Tomatis Listening Test.

Solisten by itself is not an FDA approved stand-alone program (as is the case with all sound interventions) and is not recognized in the USA as a medical intervention that seeks medical reimbursement. At our center we focus on occupational and physical therapy services in an adult-child one to one ratio and we add Solisten as one of our many tools.