Brain Freeze

You take one big bite of ice cream or sip an icy drink too fast—and suddenly, it feels like winter has exploded inside your skull. That sharp, stabbing pain right behind your forehead? That’s brain freeze, and it’s your body’s way of saying, “Slow down!”

Scientifically, brain freeze—also called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia—happens when something cold touches the roof of your mouth (the palate). The sudden drop in temperature causes blood vessels in that area to constrict rapidly, then dilate again just as fast. This quick change triggers pain signals through the trigeminal nerve, the same nerve responsible for sensations in your face and head.

Your brain, always dramatic, misinterprets those signals as pain coming from your forehead. It’s a case of referred pain, where the brain confuses the true source of discomfort. The result? That intense but short-lived headache we all know too well.

Researchers like Dr. Jorge Serrador from Harvard Medical School have even studied brain freeze to understand how blood flow changes in the brain—insights that could help with migraines and other vascular headaches. So yes, your suffering over a milkshake might actually contribute to science someday.

To stop a brain freeze, press your tongue or thumb against the roof of your mouth to warm it up and normalize blood flow. But maybe the best cure is patience—because sometimes biology just wants you to enjoy your ice cream a little slower.