Tongue-Speakers Lose Control

Scientists hooked up five Pentecostal women to a brain scanner and told them to sing a gospel song and then ratchet things up a bit by speaking in tongues.

What'd they find out? ScienceNOW Daily Newshas the scoop:

"The part of the brain that normally makes them feel in control hasbeen essentially shut down." Another notable change was increasedactivity in the parietal region--the part of the brain that "takessensory information and tries to create a sense of self and how yourelate to the rest of the world," Newberg says. The findings makesense, says [one of the researchers] because speaking in tongues involves relinquishingcontrol while gaining a "very intense experience of how the selfrelates to God."