How heat affects our brain….

We talk regularly about the best temperatures for our minds (about 70 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (depending on your clothes, what you’re doing, etc.) , with 40 to 70% humidity, as reviewed here), but conditions outdoors frequently deviate from those best-for-our-mental-performance bands.
Hence, Dana Smith’s recent article in The New York Times (2024, “How Heat Affects the Brain,” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/well/mind/heat-affect-brain-emotions.html) which pretty effectively reviews the consequences of too-hot heads. As she details “High temperatures can have an alarming effects on our bodies, raising the risk for heart attacks, heatstroke and death. . . . But heat also takes a toll on our brains, impairing cognition and making us irritable, impulsive and aggressive. . . . scores on cognitive tests [fall] as scientists raised the temperature in the room. One investigation found that just a four-degree increase — which participants described as still feeling comfortable — led to a 10 percent average drop in performance across tests of memory, reaction time and executive functioning.” The same negative effects ensue when people are in real world classrooms and workplaces and anywhere else they may find themselves, which doesn’t bode well for society as our climate warms.