Speaking in Tongues: New Research

A study of 1000 evangelical woman in England found that women who spoke in tongues were more emotionally stable than those who did not. A New York Times article from 2006 says, “Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School took brain images of five women while they spoke in tongues and found that their frontal lobes — the thinking, willful part of the brain through which people control what they do — were relatively quiet, as were the language centers. The regions involved in maintaining self-consciousness were active. The women were not in blind trances, and it was unclear which region was driving the behavior.”

“The amazing thing was how the images supported people’s interpretation of what was happening,” said Dr. Andrew B. Newberg, leader of the study team, which included Donna Morgan, Nancy Wintering and Mark Waldman. “The way they describe it, and what they believe, is that God is talking through them,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/health/07brain.html

Here’s the ABC, Nightline article

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. What is clear from the study however remains uncertain; all it seems to “prove” is that the tongues phenomena correlates with loss of control. Since it does not demonstrate the cause of the tongues phenomena one must be careful to not make claims that exceed the reach of the study.