Cocktail Party Syndrome and Sound Therapy

Listening means that we direct our ears to actively tune in to selected sounds, thus tuning out unwanted sounds. A person who cannot tune in some sounds and tune out others will be unable to follow a conversation in a noisy environment. This inability to differentiate sound from background noise, known as "Cocktail Party Syndrome", is a very common problem, affecting at least 20% of the population, both old and young.

The inability to tune out background sounds may be an indication of:

• hearing loss or
• a problem with auditory discrimination.

How Sound Therapy helps Cocktail Party Syndrome

There may be several factors which explain the remarkable effectiveness of Sound Therapy for background noise differentiation problems. This is because the ability to differentiate and focus on specific sounds in a noisy environment is partly a function of the ear and partly of the brain.

Rehabilitating the Middle Ear Muscles

French Ear, Nose and Throat specialist Dr Tomatis postulated that the middle ear muscles (the hammer and stirrup muscles) play a role in determining which sounds the ear will focus on. They change the tension on the ear drum and other membranes, allowing the ear to tune in exactly to a certain sound input. The gymnastic rehabilitation of the middle ear muscles caused by Sound Therapy may contribute to the improved ability to differentiate sound from background noise.

Correcting Central Auditory Processing

Another aspect of the Cocktail Party Syndrome is Central Auditory Processing, which means the ability of the brain to sort and make sense of different, simultaneous auditory inputs.

The ear is the end organ through which the auditory parts of the brain can be stimulated. The organised harmonic structure of classical music with its stimulating effect, further enhanced by the Dr Tomatis' "Electronic Ear", has proved an effective way to increase neural efficiency in processing sound.