Brain Temperature and Injury

Although it is well acknowledged that brain temperature heavily impacts the function of this organ, the range within which it fluctuates in healthy individuals or within patients suffering from brain injury has not been systematically defined. Intriguingly, even though it is generally assumed that due to its significance, the brain temperature of healthy individuals remains within a tight range over time or across different brain regions, mounting evidence points to the contrary. As such, motivated by the possibility that brain temperature might have considerable diagnostic and/or prognostic utility for acute and chronic brain disorders, the authors of this study sought to systematically assess this parameter in healthy adults. To that end, they employed magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), a non-invasive brain imaging technique that can provide accurate as well as spatially resolved brain temperature data.