Do brains work better at cold temperatures?

Ginny Smith warmed up to Robert's question

Ginny - Well, the first thing to say is that one of our brain's important jobs is to keep our body temperature regulated. It can't go up too much or down too much, or all of our organs will stop working, including our brains. So, the actual temperature of our brains doesn't change all that much as the ambient temperature changes. But if we change the question to being, do our brains work well when it's hot outside when the weather is hot, then you get quite an interesting answer. Our bodies actually find it more difficult to cool us down when we're hot than they do to warm us up when it's cold. Both those processes use energy. They use up glucose and glucose is what powers our bodies, but it's also what powers our brains. So, one theory is that when it's hot, we actually don't make very good decisions. There's been some really interesting studies on this looking at the kinds of lottery tickets that people buy during hot weather and showing that people generally go for the easier option when it's hot outside.

Kat - This probably explains a lot about holiday romance as well.

Ginny - Probably, that could definitely explain that. The thought is that that's because your body is using up lots of its energy trying to keep cool and there's just not enough glucose left to power your brain and to power the decision making. But our bodies are really good at adapting. So actually, you're just right talking about holidays because the effect is going to be more from someone from the UK who goes over to Florida than for someone who's always lived in Florida. They're not going to notice that hot temperature as much. So, it really is. When you go on holiday, you're acclimatising to that new temperature. Your body is working so hard, there's no power left for good decision making.

Kat - Presumably, if you go somewhere really, really cold and you get really cold, that's also not going to be great either.

Ginny - Again, you're going to be using energy to warm yourself up, shivering and that sort of thing. the studies suggest that that's not as difficult as cooling yourself down. But yes, if you went somewhere really, really cold, I would assume the same would happen.