We are familiar with having a dominant hand but did you know you also have a dominant ear? Most people turn their right ear up to listen when having difficulty hearing in a noisy environment, indicating the presence of a right dominance.

Ninety percent of people are right ear dominant, which proves to be anatomically efficient. Problems arise when the left ear is dominant.

Tomatis, a French otolaryngologist and inventor known for the Tomatis Method, suggested that the right ear controls and analyzes sounds. The right ear directly relays sounds to the left hemisphere of the brain, where some of the biggest areas of the speech and language are located – Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area.

When someone has a left dominant listening ear, the message is sent to the right side of the brain where it must be transferred to the left side to process speech and language. This causes a processing delay of information where all or most of the information is misconstrued or missed completely.

This can cause confusion and present as dyslexia, a stutter, and a myriad of learning difficulties, according to Tomatis.

In order to be a good learner, one must listen well.

According to Tomatis, there is an obvious distinction between hearing and listening: hearing is passive, and the detection of sounds around us; listening is active and requires an effort to understand and comprehend a message.

Tomatis found that an individual can be trained to be right ear dominant by increasing input to this ear. In the 1950’s Tomatis developed a device called the electronic ear to correct these listening difficulties. The device lets off sound frequencies to train and stimulate the ear to listen more efficiently.

Since our vestibular apparatus is housed in the inner ear, the electronic ear also affects a person’s balance and movement. For this reason, the electronic ear has the capacity to improve coordination and posture, as well. The listening ear has continued to advance in technology over the years.

Norman Doidge in his recent book, The Brain’s Way of Healing, shared some interesting information on Tomatis’ discoveries and contributions to what we know today about auditory processing. His apprentice (and former patient) Paul Madaule now runs a center in Toronto, The Listening Centre, which follow the protocol of Alfred Tomatis very closely.