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Article

From the Pages of Scientific American

Brain Freeze Explained

From the pages of Scientific American. Brain Freeze Explained. Cold drinks cause a major artery in the skull to dilate. Ice cream headache is a familiar summertime sensation, but the pain’s source has been mysterious until now. A team led by Jorge Serrador of Harvard Medical School produced brain scans of “second-by-second changes” in blood flow while subjects sipped iced water through a straw pressed against the roof of the mouth, which caused the brain’s major artery to widen. “Blood flow changes actually preceded the pain” that subjects reported, Serrador says. As the vessel narrowed again, the discomfort ebbed. He suspects that the influx of blood is meant to protect the brain from extreme cold and that increased pressure inside the skull could cause the pain. Serrador presented the results at Experimental Biology 2012 in April in San Diego. The author is Stephani Sutherland. Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2012 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

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1.1 Quiz

1. Serrador and colleagues were able to determine the origins of “brain freeze” by using brain-imaging techniques that:

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2. The iced water on the roof of the mouth triggers what reaction in the brain?

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3. Serrador believes that the pain of brain freeze comes most directly from:

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4. Brain freeze, as well as other kinds of pain, can be blocked by _____, a substance that blocks transmission of pain signals in the brain and spinal cord.

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5. The idea that biopsychosocial factors actually increase or decrease the perception of pain by opening and/or closing neurological pathways is called:

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