10 Explanations For Those Strange Things You Do All The Time

Brain freeze, or sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, is surely God's way of punishing us for inventing something as delicious as ice cream - but what actually is it?

Researchers at Harvard Medical School think they might have the answer. A team led by Dr. Jorge Serrador decided to purposefully inflict brain freeze on 13 willing victi, er, test subjects and monitor what was going on in their little bonces.

they found that when their participants sipped ice water so that it hit the roof of their mouth, it triggered a sudden dramatic increase in the blood flow through the brain's anterior cerebral artery - basically, it makes all the blood rush to your head. The sudden exapnsion of the blood vessel is in reaction to the sudden coldness, in the same way that your nose turns red on a cold day. 

The pain felt in the head is what is known as referred pain as it doesn't occur at the site of the stimulus. This is because all of the sensory and circulatory systems in you head are pretty mixed up, meaning that a sensation in one is likely to cause a knock on effect in another (like when your eyes water after being hit on the nose).

According to the Harvard boffins, the best way to get rid of brain freeze is to sip warm water or, failing that, press your tongue against the roof of your mouth to warm it up again.