Glossalalia researched with a brain-scan
Aug. 9th, 2006 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneWhich is probably only interesting if you know what glossalalia is or are interested in brain function.
http://blog.wired.com/biotech/#1535848
Is Speaking in Tongues Language?
Topic: Brain
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have performed the first brain-scan study on a group of Pentecostal practitioners while they were speaking in tongues, a practice also known as glossolalia.
It turned out that activity in the language centers of the Pentecostals' brains decreased during the tests, "although the practitioners spoke in a coherent language-like way," according to an email from Mark Waldman, who is editor of Transpersonal Review and is writing a book with the lead Penn researcher on the study, Andrew Newberg.
To me it's not so surprising that the language centers weren't very active. I'm not sure how speaking in tongues is coherent and language-like at all, and to me the results seem to simply suggest that speaking in tongues is not related to language. But Waldman and Newberg suggest other explanations:
… the language was being generated in a different way, or possibly from some place other than the normal processing centers of speech. For the believer, this experience could be taken as proof that another entity had actually spoken through them. For the disbeliever, it might simply mean that other unique circuits were being stimulated that directed the style and form of glossolalic speech.
Newberg also discovered, Waldman writes, that the practitioners had an unusual and permanent asymmetry in thalamic activity. The same asymmetry was found in nuns and Buddhists, which supports the theory that either intensive prayer permanently alters the brain, or that people with an abnormally functioning thalamus are more prone to having spiritual/religious experiences, according to Waldman.
The glossolalia work will soon be published in a psychology journal, Waldman said. Newberg and Waldman's book, Why We Believe What We Believe, is due out in September.
http://blog.wired.com/biotech/#1535848
Is Speaking in Tongues Language?
Topic: Brain
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have performed the first brain-scan study on a group of Pentecostal practitioners while they were speaking in tongues, a practice also known as glossolalia.
It turned out that activity in the language centers of the Pentecostals' brains decreased during the tests, "although the practitioners spoke in a coherent language-like way," according to an email from Mark Waldman, who is editor of Transpersonal Review and is writing a book with the lead Penn researcher on the study, Andrew Newberg.
To me it's not so surprising that the language centers weren't very active. I'm not sure how speaking in tongues is coherent and language-like at all, and to me the results seem to simply suggest that speaking in tongues is not related to language. But Waldman and Newberg suggest other explanations:
… the language was being generated in a different way, or possibly from some place other than the normal processing centers of speech. For the believer, this experience could be taken as proof that another entity had actually spoken through them. For the disbeliever, it might simply mean that other unique circuits were being stimulated that directed the style and form of glossolalic speech.
Newberg also discovered, Waldman writes, that the practitioners had an unusual and permanent asymmetry in thalamic activity. The same asymmetry was found in nuns and Buddhists, which supports the theory that either intensive prayer permanently alters the brain, or that people with an abnormally functioning thalamus are more prone to having spiritual/religious experiences, according to Waldman.
The glossolalia work will soon be published in a psychology journal, Waldman said. Newberg and Waldman's book, Why We Believe What We Believe, is due out in September.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 06:17 pm (UTC)It is like language in the sense that I'm producing "words" that sound like real words in a language that's not English (the only language I actually speak). I can "encourage" the sounds to have certain patterns, such that they sound a little more like, say, French, or Russian, or some form of Chinese. I can also sing this way.
These "words" are words in the sense that they are mono- and polysyllabic, they vary considerably from word to word, and "sentences" form. The big differences between these sounds and actual words are (a) they don't really "repeat," so it's not like I'm pulling them from memory, and (b) none of them are in any way associated with concepts, an essential requirement of real words.
To me it just seems like it's the ability to engage the pure physiological speech center without associating it with conscious thought. I've always wondered how common this "ability" is, if lots of other people do it or if it's pretty rare.
Mind, I'm not saying that "speaking in tongues" is not in some sense a true spiritual experience for those who encounter it that way. I just think that it's something the brain can do that, because most folks don't have conscious access to it (or just haven't practiced it, like I did as a teen), feels otherworldly.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 07:11 pm (UTC)Are you challenging me? ;)
"that the language centers weren't very active"
I guess the most interesting question here is if the motoric language centre was more or less active than usual. All produced sounds have their roots in that motoric centre, speech sounds have more complex representations in that area, other non-language related sounds are more simple in representation.
It would be nice if they had found something about intonation of "speaking in tongues" because you learn the intonation of your mother tongue in the first 10 weeks after your birth. If the intonation differs it would be a more solid indicator that a different brain area is involved.
Very interesting article. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 07:29 pm (UTC)Your point about intonation is interesting. I'm curious if you had a couple that were widely different intonations, say, Japanese and Russian, and they spoke in their native tongue around a newborn for the described 10 weeks, what the newborn's inflection would be like when they are able to speak.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 07:39 pm (UTC)In German it's "Glossolalie" btw (random fact of the day). ;)
Well there have been observations of newborns with bilingual parents:
1. One parent French, one German (intonation is quite different), the result was that the babies babbled in German intonation to the German parent and in French intonation to the French one.
2. Both parents bilingual as well (English/Canadian French I think), the babies babbled in the intonation of the language most used around them, the discrimination of the different intonation settled in a bit later in 12th or 14th week or something like that.
It's nearly impossible to stop a baby from learning languages, no matter hom many are around. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 08:13 pm (UTC)Pity we didn't know more about this when I was a kid. I've tried picking up Japanese and French with almost zero success in either. My teacher did tell me, though, that my French accent was quite good.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-10 07:12 am (UTC)