What "Speaking In Tongues" Does To Your Brain

Summary

The video examines glossolalia, commonly called speaking in tongues, as a religious practice and reviews what psychological and neuroscientific research can—and cannot—say about it.

What speaking in tongues is and how it is practiced

Scholars define glossolalia as the ritual production of speech-like sounds without recognizable meaning or the grammar of a known language. Practitioners may describe the experience as involuntary or as channeling sounds rather than consciously forming ordinary speech.

The practice varies by context: it may be private prayer, a subdued and expected part of a service, or a more spontaneous public expression. The video cautions that highly ecstatic, trance-like forms are comparatively uncommon.

Glossolalia is associated especially with Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, though most Christian denominations do not practice it. Pentecostalism draws its name and inspiration from the New Testament account of Pentecost in Acts, when the Holy Spirit enables the apostles to speak in unfamiliar languages. Early Pentecostals often understood tongues as a sign of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and, initially, as languages that could help spread Christianity. Many practitioners today instead understand it as a heavenly language.

The video distinguishes xenoglossy—the supposed miraculous ability to speak a real foreign language one has not learned—from glossolalia.

What researchers find in the speech

Researchers analyzing glossolalia have found that it is often rhythmic, repetitive, alliterative, and sometimes melodic. It may include familiar religious words such as “hallelujah.”

The sounds people use generally come from the phonological inventory of languages they already know. In other words, speakers tend not to produce sounds outside the range familiar to them. This suggests that glossolalia is shaped by speakers’ existing linguistic knowledge and the neural pathways developed through ordinary language.

Brain structure and cognitive control

The video describes one 2020 study that found greater gray-matter volume among frequent glossolalia practitioners in two areas:

• Left frontal pole: Associated with goal-directed behavior and multitasking. The video compares this to a region also found to have greater volume in simultaneous interpreters, whose work involves rapidly switching between languages.
• Right middle frontal gyrus: Associated with suppressing distractions and inhibiting impulses—functions involved in cognitive control.

The researchers proposed that producing speech-like sounds while preventing ordinary meaningful words from taking over may require executive control. Repeated practice could potentially be associated with changes in the brain.

However, the video stresses that this is a debated area: brain-volume correlations do not establish cause and effect, and more research is needed.

Cognitive studies

The video describes two lines of research.

Artificial-language learning experiment

Researchers in Budapest tested 60 Pentecostal volunteers: 30 who practiced glossolalia and 30 who did not. Participants listened to sentences in an artificial language and were tested the next day on their ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences.

Glossolalia practitioners performed better at learning and retaining the artificial grammar’s rules, as well as on some other verbal measures. The researchers suggested two possible explanations: practicing glossolalia might exercise verbal-processing abilities, or people already strong in language processing might be more likely to take up the practice. The study does not determine which explanation is correct.

Mentalization experiments

A separate Budapest team compared glossolalia practitioners, Pentecostal and charismatic controls, and people with schizophrenia. One task used animated triangles whose movements appeared either intentional or random. Other tests assessed recognition of complex mental states, including from facial expressions.

Compared with the religious control group, glossolalia practitioners showed more hypermentalization—a tendency to attribute complex intentions or mental states—and performed well at recognizing complex states in other tests. The schizophrenia group showed both hypermentalization and hypomentalization, or difficulty attributing mental states.

The researchers treated the differences as evidence that glossolalia is not simply a form of disorganized or dissociative speech. The video notes that the study had a small sample and a narrow cultural setting: all participants were Hungarian.

The video also emphasizes that current evidence does not show that glossolalia is generally associated with mental disorders. It mentions research reporting lower depression and neuroticism, and higher emotional stability, among glossolalia practitioners compared with culturally similar non-practitioners.

The limits of a brain-only explanation

The video argues that religious rituals are social practices as well as individual experiences. Glossolalia often happens when a congregation is gathered and expectations are heightened. When someone speaks, the group may focus attention on them, reinforcing the practice and marking the person as touched by the Holy Spirit.

Social factors such as gender, race, and inequality also matter. The video notes that marginalized groups have sometimes been more likely to practice glossolalia. Anthropologists have documented instances in which the practice challenges gender roles or expresses distress about income inequality. These dynamics cannot be fully explained by studying the brain alone.

Glossolalia and magic

The video briefly compares glossolalia to so-called magical words, including familiar examples such as “abracadabra” and unintelligible phrases found in ancient magical texts. It presents this as a historical comparison, while noting that glossolalia has sometimes been labeled “magic” by critics who disapproved of it.

The host then promotes an eight-week online course on ancient Roman magic. This closing section is an advertisement rather than part of the scientific discussion.

Main takeaway

Glossolalia is shaped by speakers’ existing language abilities and may involve cognitive processes such as verbal processing, executive control, and mentalizing. Research offers clues about these mechanisms, but its findings are tentative and do not explain the whole practice. The religious, communal, and cultural setting is essential to understanding what glossolalia means and how it functions.

Speakers and sources featured

• The video’s narrator/host, who explains the research and discusses the social-scientific context; the host also promotes an online course on ancient Roman magic.
• An unidentified preacher or pastor in an opening clip about speaking in tongues.
• An unidentified speaker in a worship clip, heard encouraging participants to continue.
• Nicholas Harkness, cited for anthropological work on glossolalia in South Korea and for cautions about interpreting it primarily as trance.
• Unidentified neuroscientists and psychologists, including the team behind the 2020 gray-matter study.
• An unidentified Budapest research team, responsible for the artificial-language and mentalization studies described in the video.
• Biblical source: The Book of Acts’ account of Pentecost.
• Historical Pentecostal leaders mentioned: William Seymour and Charles Parham.