Human body · 60 s
Brain freeze
Why one gulp hurts your forehead.
You’d think. The cold shot straight into your brain. It didn’t. The problem begins on the roof of your mouth.
Actually. Vessels in your palate clamp down, then flood open. The trigeminal nerve reports that as pain, and your brain places it in your forehead.
The fix. Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth, or sip something warm.
How sure? The 2012 blood-flow study had 13 adults. The trigeminal explanation is the leading theory, not proven fact.
Sources
- Brain freeze and blood flow (2012), ScienceDaily
- What’s happening during a brain freeze, Houston Methodist
What the video says
You take one big gulp of a slushie and your forehead starts screaming.
It feels like the cold shot straight into your brain. It didn't. The problem begins on the roof of your mouth.
Ice-cold hits your palate, and the blood vessels there clamp down, then flood open. The trigeminal nerve, a big nerve in your face, reports that as pain.
Your brain misreads where the signal came from and puts the pain in your forehead. That's called referred pain.
In a small 2012 study, thirteen adults sipped ice water while researchers watched their blood flow. An artery at the front of the brain widened just as the pain hit, then narrowed as it faded.
Doctors call it sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. By one estimate, about four in ten people get it.
Next time, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth, or sip something warm.
And then, obviously, you take another gulp.