Human Brain Cooling During Breath-Holding

Sbastien Murat¹, Jan Weis¹, Francisco Ortiz-Nieto¹, Hkan Ahlstrm¹

Controversy exists as to whether humans are capable of brain-cooling under any circumstances. Based on previous animal experiments, evidence of brain cooling was sought during controlled breath-holding. MR phase-difference method was used for measurement of human brain temperature changes during breath-hold. Brain temperature promptly decreased by ca 1 C in 1 min. Indications are that humans can invoke extreme brain cooling to lower metabolic rate. The study opens-up new in-roads for potentially treating a wide range of critical illnesses (e.g., stroke, cardiac arrest, brain injury) avoiding the limitations of therapeutic hypothermia.