The Horrors of a Frozen Brain

Normally I don’t each much ice-cream. But today, my sis made it and asked me to eat it. I obliged. As with everything else, I devoured a big chunk of it with the spoon and then boom! My head started paining and I spit it all out into the plate. Took me sometime to come back to normalcy. I remembered brainfreeze. I thought how I never bothered to know whether our brain really freezes when we eat something cold. Thus, today’s question:

What Is Brain Freeze?

A cascade of reactions occurs in our body when the cold food touches our palate.

• Cooling of capillaries by a cold stimulus (ice cream or slushies or anything else) causes vasoconstriction in the palate (narrowing of blood vessels)
• Exposure to warm air after the cold stimulus causes vasodilation in the palate (expansion of blood vessels)
• These rapid changes in the blood flow affect the nerves at the back of the palate (called Sphenopalatine Ganglion)
• The SPG (Sphenopalatine Ganglion) in turns sends signals to the brain via the trigeminal nerve
• The trigeminal nerve is a major facial nerve and conveys a “facial pain” signal to the brain
  This leads to the perceived sensation of brain freeze.

Phew! too much of biological jargon. In short, exposure to cold items causes expansion of blood vessels on the top of our mouth (the palate). These expansions are sensed by nearby nerves that send pain signals to the brain.
I found another interesting piece of information while looking up brain freeze. The nerves involved in causing a brain freeze are also involved in migraine headaches. Many people claim that brain freeze sometimes alleviates migraine pains. Probably something one can try out for themselves.

Wondering what happened to the ice cream on my plate? I ate it ofcourse! Go have your own.