The normal temperature of the human body is 37ºC. However, the brain can reach 40º, especially in the deepest areas.
new finds, published in Brain magazine, challenge the widely held belief that the temperature of the human brain and body are the same. In addition, they found that their temperature varies according to brain region, age, sex and time of day.
Women’s brains are hotter
On average, female brains were about 0.4°C warmer than male brains. This sex difference was likely driven by the menstrual cycle, as most women were examined in the post-ovulation phase of the cycle and their brain temperature was about 0.4°C higher than normal. of women examined in the pre-ovulation phase.
The results also showed that brain temperature increased with age in the participants’ 20s, especially in the deep regions of the brain, where the average increase was 0.6°C.
The researchers propose that the brain’s ability to cool itself may deteriorate with age, and more work is needed to investigate whether there is a link to the development of age-related brain disorders.
The brain without fever
Healthy participants in the study, published in the journal Brain, they had an average brain temperature of 38.5°C, 2.5°C higher than the average temperature inside the mouth. In the deepest regions of the brain, the temperature was often above 40°C, with 40.9°C being the highest temperature recorded.
The temperature of the human brain varies much more than previously believed, and temperature variations could be a sign of healthy brain function.
Cambridge, UK researchers have produced the first 4D map of the healthy temperature of the human brain. This map overturns several previous assumptions and shows how much brain temperature varies by brain region, age, sex and time of day. The study also found that brain temperature varied depending on:
- time of day
- brain region
- sex and menstrual cycle
- and age
The deepest brain structures were often above 40°C
While the surface of the brain was generally cooler, the deeper brain structures were often above 40°C, with the highest observed brain temperature being 40.9°C. In all subjects, brain temperature showed a constant variation of almost 1°C, with higher brain temperatures observed in the afternoon and lower in the evening.
“To me, the most surprising finding from our study is that the healthy human brain can reach temperatures that would be diagnosed as fever elsewhere in the body. Such high temperatures have been measured in people with brain injuries in the past, but it was assumed that they were the result of the injury. a statement The doctor. John O’Neillgroup leader in Molecular Biology Laboratory of the Medical Research Council, where the study was carried out.