8.8 How can Sound Therapy SYNERGY help so many different conditions?
Because it works on the brain, and all aspects of our functioning link to the brain.
Dr. George Richards PhD, speaking at the Australian Audiological conference in 2004, described a process of a break down in the auditory feedback loop.
He states:
“Through over stimulation, sickness and disease, drug therapies and other oxidative stress, the integrity of the afferent and efferent nervous systems is compromised, with loss of muscle tone and synchrony in the synaptic firing order.
This compromise manifests itself in myriad of symptomatic maladies, such as hearing loss, tinnitus, loss of balance and coordination, loss of attention, inability to hear and understand in the presence of background noise, fatigue, tiredness, headaches, anxiety, depression and on and on.
Always keep in mind that the ear brain system supplies 85% of the ongoing cortical energy. So when damage occurs to this delicate feedback system, the homeostasis of the entire organism is compromised.”
Richards expanded thus on Dr. Tomatis’s theories of muscle function and cortical charge:
“Through highly organized temporal stimuli (classical music), which has undergone high band pass filtration, (the Sound Therapy process) a restoration of aural (ear) muscle tone and synaptic firing order occurs.
“When these two things happen, an enhancement of mechanical tone and tuning occur to provide better cortical processing. Better cortical processing corrects a myriad of problems ranging from: anxiety relief, better hearing, tinnitus control, better balance and coordination, to: feelings of happiness and well being, thus promoting a better homeostasis of global proportions within the individual.
“It seems that it is the reestablishing of the ability to listen to the higher frequency that is responsible for repairing and reorganizing cortical pathways. The energy levels coming in from the high frequency areas are more intense than for the lower frequencies.” (Richards 2004)
These statements by Dr George Richards go a long way to addressing the objection sometimes raised that we are claiming too diverse a group of benefits for Sound Therapy SYNERGY. The fact that people are sceptical about how wide the benefits of Sound Therapy can be only goes to confirm how unaware people are of the integral and profound importance of the ear to our neural functioning.
However, there is another way to explain the diverse benefits of Sound Therapy SYNERGY. If we point out that Sound Therapy is working on the brain, not just the ear, people tend to see it differently. No one would dispute that every one of the conditions we claim to address is related to the brain. They may dispute that they are related to the ear. However, we are simply using the ear as a means to access and stimulate the brain. This is a good way to illustrate the fact that our sensory pathways are merely the vehicle by which our neural network and all the capacities of the brain can be accessed and enhanced.
Theory References:
Klochoff, I. (1979). Impedance Fluctuation And A “Tensor Tympani Syndrome”. Paper from the Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Acoustic Impedance Measurements Lison Sept 25-28, 1979, Universidad Nova de Lisbona Ed Penha & Pizarro, pp.69-76.
Porges, S. (2011). The polyvagal theory. New York: W.W. Norton.
Kuppersmith, Ronald B. Eustachian tube function and dysfunction. July 11, 1996, http://www.bcm.edu/oto/grand/71196.html
Stillitano, C., Fioretti, A., Cantagallo, M., & Eibenstein, A. (2018). The Effects of the Tomatis Method on Tinnitus. International Journal Of Research In Medical And Health Sciences, Vol. 4,(No.2). Retrieved from http://www.ijsk.org/ijrmhs.htm