When members of certain religious sects “speak in tongues,” they mouth what sounds like an incomprensible language, which to them has great meaning. Now, researchers have taken what they say are the first brain scans of people speaking in tongues.

The scientists, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, found decreased activity in the frontal lobes, a brain area behind the forehead associated with self-control.

It’s “fascinating because these subjects truly believe that the spirit of God is moving through them and controlling them to speak,” said the university’s Andrew Newberg, one of the researchers.

The “research shows us that these subjects are not in control of the usual language centers during this activity, which is consistent with their description of a lack of intentional control.”

The study appears in the November issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

The investigation compared the brains of those speaking in tongues to people singing gospel music. “We noticed a number of changes,” Newberg said, including in regions tied to emotions and the sense of self.

“These findings could be interpreted as the subject’s sense of self being taken over by something else. We, scientifically, assume it’s being taken over by another part of the brain. But we couldn’t see, in this imaging study, where this took place.”

Newberg concluded that the changes in the brain during speaking in tongues reflect a complex pattern of brain activity. Future studies will be needed to confirm the findings and demystify the phenomenon, he added.


St. Paul, mentioned in the Bible as an advocate of speaking in tongues, in a stained glass window by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898).

Speaking in tongues, which has existed for millennia and is mentioned in the Bible, is technically called glossolalia. In Christianity it is particularly associated with Pentecostal denominations.

The researchers used Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, a type of scan in which a bit of a radioactive drug is injected into a vein. The scanner then makes detailed images of tissues where cells take up the drug. The process can give information about blood flow and metabolism.


- Courtesy University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
and World Science staff

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Science writer Jack Lucentini is founder and editor of the World Science science news webzine. He has worked as a staff writer at three daily newspapers, and as a freelance science writer for a range of publications including The Washington Post, Discover magazine and The Scientist magazine. He earned his bachelor's degree at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1993.