What is actually happening when you get 'brain freeze' from eating cold ice cream?

Question:

Answers:
Ouch! Why is My Brain Frozen?
When cold stuff (like popsicles, ice cream or slushies) touches the roof of your mouth it can set off a nerve reaction (in the spheno-palantine ganglion, to be precise), that causes the blood vessels in your brain to swell. When the blood vessels swell, you get a headache. The headache usually lasts less than a minute. Mystery solved.

Unfreeze My Brain Already!
So the question remains: how can you make the headache go away? The key is to warm the roof of your mouth back up, thereby constricting (narrowing) the blood vessels. The easiest thing to do is to press your tounge to the roof of your mouth. You can also try drinking warm water. In the future, try to eat your frozen treats slowly and give yourself breaks between bites to let your mouth warm up.

Other Answers:
you nerves are reacting to a drastic change in temperature

your brain freezes over and you stop breathing for 2.5 seconds in order to drink something to make it stop your body is reacting to the cold by sending warm blood to the area, the brain freeze sensation is actually caused by overheating, not freezing

You are actually just getting a nerve (in the roof of your mouth) that connects to your sinus cavity very cold, which translates as pain in your sinus cavity (which goes up inside your skull back from your nose, behind your forehead and between your eyes).

The coldness in the drink freezes your blood in your tongue and the blood going to your brain is slow because of being frozen so it doesnt get there in time and your brain loses oxygen until your blood is warm again.

Little creatures in ice cream come out and nibble at your brain.

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What is actually happening when you get 'brain freeze' from eating cold ice cream?

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