What is Brain Freeze? Why do we get brain freeze? What causes brain freeze? This video explains why we get brain freeze. A cold-stimulus headache, colloquially known as an ice-cream headache or brain freeze, is a form of brief pain or headache commonly associated with consumption (particularly quick consumption) of cold beverages or foods such as ice cream, popsicles, and snow cones. It is caused by a cold substance touching the roof of the mouth, and is believed to result from a nerve response causing rapid constriction and swelling of blood vessels, "referring" pain from the roof of the mouth to the head. The rate of intake for cold foods has been studied as a contributing factor. It can also occur during a sudden exposure of unprotected head to cold temperatures, such as by diving into cold water. A cold-stimulus headache is distinct from dentin hypersensitivity, a type of dental pain that can occur under similar circumstances.
Cats and other animals have been observed exhibiting a similar reaction when presented with a similar stimulus.
The term ice-cream headache has been in use since at least January 31, 1937, contained in a journal entry by Rebecca Timbres published in the 1939 book We Didn't Ask Utopia: A Quaker Family in Soviet Russia. The first published use of the term brain freeze, in the sense of a cold-stimulus headache, was in 1991.
A cold-stimulus headache is thought to be the direct result of the rapid cooling and rewarming of the capillaries in the sinuses leading to periods of vasoconstriction and vasodilation. A similar, but painless, blood vessel response causes the face to appear "flushed" after being outside on a cold day. In both instances, the low temperature causes the capillaries in the sinuses to constrict and then experience extreme rebound dilation as they warm up again.
In the palate, this dilation is sensed by nearby pain receptors, which then send signals back to the brain via the trigeminal nerve, one of the major nerves of the facial area. This nerve also senses facial pain, so as the neural signals are conducted the brain interprets the pain as coming from the forehead-the same "referred pain" phenomenon seen in heart attacks. Brain-freeze pain may last from a few seconds to a few minutes. Research suggests that the same vascular mechanism and nerve implicated in "brain freeze" cause the aura (sensory disturbance) and pulsatile (throbbing pain) phases of migraines.
It is possible to have a cold-stimulus headache in both hot and cold weather, because the effect relies upon the temperature of the food being consumed rather than that of the environment. Other causes that may mimic the sensation of cold-stimulus headache include that produced when high speed drilling is performed through the inner table of the skull in people undergoing such a procedure in an awake or sedated state.
This video used the following article under Creative Commons - CC BY-ND 4.0 DEED: "What is a Brain Freeze?" (theconversation.com/what-is-a...) Tyler Daniel Anderson-Sieg, Doctoral Student in Biomedical Sciences, University of South Carolina (Published: April 23, 2022); slight stylistic modifications to original text.
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