Neuroscientists found that people who “speak in tongues” don’t do it on purpose and that the language doesn’t stem from the language center of the brain!

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania brain scanned five women as they spoke in tongues. Their findings? They discovered that their frontal lobes, which do the conscious thinking, and their language centers were relatively inactive, compared to normal activity!

The region of the brain that maintains self-consciousness was active, however. The women were not in blind trances, though. The act of speaking in tongues is rooted in the Old and New Testaments and Christians say it is the act of God speaking through the person. The research has shown that the description given for speaking in tongues is quite accurate to what is taking place in the brain at that time. Mental illness is rare in people who speak in tongues, contrary to popular thought.

In fact, a recent study showed that people who practice speaking in tongues are more emotionally healthy than those who do not.

(Source)