Our Brain performs various activities throughout the day. The temperature of the human brain keeps changes throughout the day. However, now, according to scientists, a new theory comes in front which shows that the normal temperature of the human brain swings significantly more than previously assumed and it could be an indication of good brain function.
According to the study, certain parts of the deep brain may attain temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius, however, this varies based on gender, time of day, and other factors. In comparison, the typical mouth temperature in humans is less than 37 degrees Celsius.
According to researchers, this is not an indicator of a defect, but rather proof that the brain is operating appropriately. Human brain temperature research has historically employed data from brain-injured patients in critical care when direct brain monitoring is usually necessary.
Researchers were recently able to measure brain temperature in healthy people using a brain scanning method called magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). However, MRS has not previously been used to explore how brain temperature fluctuates during the day, or how one's 'body clock' impacts this.
The new study is the first to create a four-dimensional map of healthy human brain temperature. This figure disproves a variety of previously held beliefs by illustrating how much brain temperature fluctuates by brain region, age, gender, and time of day.
The researchers also examined data from traumatic brain damage patients and discovered that the occurrence of daily brain temperature cycles is strongly connected to survival. These discoveries might help with the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of brain injuries.
The study's findings were published in the journal Brain.
According to the paper, the researchers "recruited 40 healthy persons (20 men, 20 females, 20–40 years) for brain thermometry utilizing magnetic resonance spectroscopy." Participants were scanned in the morning, afternoon, and late evening on a single day.
According to the findings, healthy participants' brain temperatures ranged from 36.1 degrees Celsius to 40.9 degrees Celsius.
Female brains were 0.4 degrees Celsius warmer than male brains on average. Because most females were examined at the post-ovulation phase of their cycle, their brain temperature was around 0.4 degrees Celsius higher than in the pre-ovulation period. The menstrual cycle was most likely to blame for this disparity.
The most startling result, according to Dr. John O'Neill, Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, is that the healthy human brain can reach temperatures that would be classified as fever elsewhere in the body.
Such high temperatures had previously been observed in people with brain injuries, but they were thought to be caused by the injury. The researchers revealed that the temperature of the brain decreases before sleep and rises during the day. There is evidence to suggest that daily variation is connected to long-term brain health, which the researchers intend to investigate more.
The researchers now hope that the 4D brain temperature map might be used as a guide for what a healthy brain should look like. To be genuinely useful, however, significantly more data from a far larger group of people is required.
