To induce headache inside the lab and study it from start to finish, Serrador explains, brain freeze is a perfect fit. It's easy to bring on and resolves quickly without expensive or complicated equipment or drugs.
In this study, Serrador and his colleague recruited 13 healthy adults. The researchers monitored the volunteers' blood flow in several brain arteries using transcranial Doppler while they first sipped ice water with the straw pressed against their upper palateideal conditions for bringing on brain freezeand then while sipping the same amount of water at room temperature. The volunteers raised their hand once they felt the pain of a brain freeze, then raised it again once the pain dissipated. Findings showed that one particular artery, called the anterior cerebral artery, dilated rapidly and flooded the brain with blood in conjunction to when the volunteers felt pain. Soon after this dilation occurred, the same vessel constricted as the volunteers' pain receded.
Changing the Course of Headaches
Serrador and his colleagues speculate that the dilation, then quick constriction, may be a type of self-defense for the brain. "The brain is one of the relatively important organs in the body, and it needs to be working all the time," he explains. "It's fairly sensitive to temperature, so vasodilation might be moving warm blood inside tissue to make sure the brain stays warm." But because the skull is a closed s
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| Contact: Donna Krupa dkrupa@the-aps.org American Physiological Society Source:Eurekalert |