We’ve all been there — the excruciating moment after you sip a cold soft drink or a bite of ice cream, those seconds filled with the kind of half-blissful, half-torturous headache that’s enough to make you squeeze your eyes shut and reach for your temples. That’s brain freeze — or sphenopalatine ganglioneuraliga, if you prefer.

What’s the science behind brain freezes? Until now, the research has been rather hazy. But scientists now know that the phenomenon may be related to a surge of blood into the brain. What’s more, they intend to apply this discovery to learn more about other kinds of headaches, particularly among soldiers with combat trauma…

Read the full story here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/the-science-of-brain-freeze/256235/