The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity

by Norman Doidge

This listening posture, he observed, is tied into the overall tonus of the body: the person looks spry, and alert. Just as neurons are never totally off, so too in a healthy person, relaxed muscles are never totally slack. Tomatis argued that input from the ear has an impact on the verticality and tonus of the entire body—and of course certain kinds of music make people feel they must get up and dance. His observation that good listening is energizing suggested to him that higher frequencies energize the brain, and he summarized it by proposing that “the ear is a battery to the brain.”