If you’ve ever experienced a stabbing pain in your forehead when eating ice cream or enjoying a cold drink, you know what a brain freeze is. The real question is, what really is a “brain freeze”?

“I’ve never thought of what a brain freeze actually is….I just know I get one every time I eat ice cream,” said junior Anna Anderson

Previously, scientists have suggested it is just a result of rapid cooling and rewarming of blood vessels in the sinuses, but a new study shows that the cause is actually buried much deeper.

“I thought a brain freeze your brain literally freezing,” said sophomore Ethan Larson. While many people have come to this conclusion when they get those nasty ice cream headaches, there is an actual explanation.

Some experts suggest that up to one third of the population is susceptible to brain freeze, especially when eating frozen treats on a hot day. The pain of a brain freeze, is similar to that of a migraine headache, but thankfully most attacks last 30 seconds or less.

“It feels like someone is pounding a hammer through my skull, they can be so painful,” said senior Conor Borgert.

Researchers suggest a brain freeze is a combination of your body’s overreaction to cold stimuli, freezing of a cluster of nerves above the palate and a sudden influx of warm blood to the brain. When taking an extra large bite of ice cream, some of it reaches the roof of your mouth, know as the hard palate. Behind this palate is a cluster of nerves which act as a protective thermostat.

The main nerve called the spenopalatine nerve is extremely sensitive to abrupt changes in temperature. Essentially this nerve, like all other nerves in the human body, sends a message to your brain when irritated. This message is pain.

“Whenever I get a brain freeze, I put my thumb on the roof of my mouth and press until it goes away. I don’t know where I learned it put it seems to work,” said freshman Paulina Gabos.

She’s right. One of the quickest ways to reduce the duration of brain freeze is to place your thumb or tongue on the roof of your mouth to  warm the palate. Once the palate becomes warm again, the nerve clusters are no longer stimulated and they will call off the brain freeze warning.

Other methods have been used to “cure” brain freeze such as drinking little sips of water until it goes away, or adding spicy foods such as pepper on your ice cream or frozen treats. All three methods have reportedly worked to “cure” brain freeze even if there is no true scientific cure.

Allie Hirschberg is a Variety Editor for The Spartan Speaks.