
With the blood vessels constricting, the body pumps extra blood to the area to help the vessels readjust this causes the blood vessels to begin to swell. As a survival reflex to keep our bodies at the correct internal temperature, our blood vessels automatically constrict when coming into contact with a substantially colder substance. At the back of the throat is the internal carotid artery and anterior cerebral artery, which feed blood to the brain and is where brain tissue begins. Here’s how it happens: when we consume something really cold, we’re dramatically changing the temperature in our mouth and at the back of our throat. In order of least science-y to most science-y terminology: brain freeze, ice cream headache, cold stimulus headache, trigeminal headache, and sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia all refer to the same sharp feeling we get after eating something too cold, too quickly. It’s caused by consuming something cold, it’s uncomfortable, and it hurts more than we expect it to, but what really is it? What Is Brain Freeze?īrain freeze has a few different names depending on how science-y we want to get with it. They’re always more unpleasant than we remember, but we’d also kind of miss them if we were never to get one again, wouldn’t we?Įveryone’s had a brain freeze at some point or another, making it surprising how few people know what it even is. Brain freeze is basically a rite of passage during summer.

And with that, everyone stops and looks up from their ice cream cone to see which friend has the crinkled face, closed eyes, and one hand clinging onto their head.
