CERTAIN parts of the brain - which control scepticism and vigilance - appear to deactivate in some people when they're in the presence of a speaker who they believe has divine healing powers, scientists in Denmark have found.

Researchers recruited 36 male and female participants; about half were devout Christians from the Pentecostal church, while the other half were non-religious.

The participants who considered themselves religious believed that some people could possess divine powers of healing. The non-religious participants did not believe this.

Each person listened to 18 different prayers performed by three different people - a Christian, a non-Christian and a Christian known for their ''healing'' powers - while undergoing a brain scan. (In reality, all three speakers were ''ordinary'' Christians, with no reported healing powers.) After the scan, participants were asked to rate each speaker's charisma.

The devout Christians in the study rated the speaker presented as a divine healer as the most charismatic, while they voted the non-Christian speaker as the least charismatic.