![]() The patients’ average brain temperature was 38.5☌, but it varied even more widely, from 32.6 to 42.3☌. ![]() This was to explore the clinical implications of data obtained from healthy volunteers. The researchers analysed temperature data collected continuously from the brain in 114 patients who had suffered from moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). There is good reason to believe this daily variation is associated with long-term brain health, something we hope to investigate next. We found that brain temperature drops at night before you go to sleep and rises during the day. Such high temperatures have been measured in people with brain injuries in the past, but had been assumed to result from the injury. To me, the most surprising finding from our study is that the healthy human brain can reach temperatures that would be diagnosed as fever anywhere else in the body. Surprising findingsĭr John O’Neill, Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, said: Further work is needed to investigate whether there is linked with the development of age-related brain disorders. The researchers propose that the brain’s capacity to cool down may deteriorate with age. The results also showed that brain temperature increased with age over the 20-year range of the participants, most notably in deep brain regions, where the average increase was 0.6☌. ![]() Their brain temperature was around 0.4☌ warmer than that of females scanned in their pre-ovulation phase. This sex difference was most likely driven by the menstrual cycle, since most females were scanned in the post-ovulation phase of their cycle. On average, female brains were around 0.4☌ warmer than male brains. While the brain surface was generally cooler, deeper brain structures were frequently warmer than 40☌ with the highest observed brain temperature being 40.9☌.Īcross all individuals, brain temperature showed consistent time-of-day variation by nearly 1☌, with highest brain temperatures observed in the afternoon, and the lowest at night.īrain temperature in the morning versus the evening in post-ovulation (luteal) females and males (credit: N Rzechorzek, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Brain) Female brains warmer than male brains The study also found that brain temperature varied depending on: In healthy participants, the average brain temperature was 38.5☌, more than two degrees warmer than that measured under the tongue. This was important for both ‘night owls’ and ‘morning larks’. Knowing the biological time-of-day that each brain temperature measurement was taken at allowed differences between each volunteer’s body clock to be factored into the analysis. The volunteers were scanned in the morning, afternoon and late evening over one day, at the Edinburgh Imaging Facility, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.Ĭrucially, they also gave the participants a wrist-worn activity monitor, allowing genetic and lifestyle differences in the timing of each person’s body clock, or circadian rhythm, to be taken into account. To study the healthy brain, the researchers recruited 40 volunteers, aged 20 to 40 years. These findings could be used to improve understanding, prognosis, and treatment of brain injury. The research, published in Brain, also included analysis of data from patients with traumatic brain injury, showing that the presence of daily brain temperature cycles strongly correlates with survival. Importantly, these findings also challenge a widely held belief that human brain and body temperature are the same. This map overturns several previous assumptions and shows the remarkable extent to which brain temperature varies by: The new study, led by researchers at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, has produced the first 4D map of healthy human brain temperature. Until now, however, MRS had not been used to explore how brain temperature varies throughout the day, or to consider how an individual’s ‘body clock’ influences this. More recently, a brain scanning technique, called magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), has enabled researchers to measure brain temperature non-invasively in healthy people. Previously, human brain temperature studies have relied upon data capture from brain-injured patients in intensive care, where direct brain monitoring is often needed. In healthy men and women, where oral temperature is typically less than 37☌, average brain temperature is 38.5☌, with deeper brain regions often exceeding 40☌, particularly in women during the daytime. New research has shown that normal human brain temperature varies much more than we thought, and this could be a sign of healthy brain function. Study links a daily cycle in brain temperature with survival after traumatic brain injury.
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