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Cooling the brain is likely key for cognitive enhancement

by Michael Steele
17th Nov 2025
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I am sharing this info due to Eliezer mentioning in a recent interview we need to augment human intelligence to be smart enough to have a chance to align super-intelligent AI. And he then said augmenting brain cooling might be the path to victory.

Think of the brain as a powerful computer with a small heat sink. Especially in animal brains. The information below is from studies from Kiyatkin in rodents. You can see that under relatively normal situations like social interaction in rodents, their brain temperature increases at a peak rate of 1 degree increase over 5 minutes. Also keep in mind: “Brain tissue is exceptionally sensitive to heat—structural changes occurring with a 3–4 °C increase above normal baseline." So these rates, if sustained over 15-20 minutes, could cause permanent brain damage or spontaneous death. 

Kiyatkin found that rodents drop dead spontaneously from overheated brains if they take MDMA + are housed in hot climates + are exposed to highly stimulating situations like other rodents to mate with. And this occurs within a few hours and with a 90% fatality rate.

Fastest measured ramps (first 60 s)

Condition (awake, freely moving)ΔT at 60 s (from figure)Approx. rate (ΔT/60 s)
Social interaction (female)≈0.18–0.20 °C≈0.18–0.20 °C/min (≈0.003 °C/s)
Social interaction (male)≈0.17–0.19 °C≈0.17–0.19 °C/min
Tail‑pinch (3 min)≈0.15–0.17 °C≈0.15–0.17 °C/min
20‑s tone≈0.05–0.06 °C≈0.05–0.06 °C/min

Rodents brains do exhibit heat throttling: when rats start from an already-hot brain (e.g., just after social interaction), their subsequent arousal responses are blunted. Kiyatkin’s data show a strong dependence on baseline brain temperature: as baseline rises toward ~38–39.5 °C, stimulus-evoked brain-temperature increases shrink and can disappear.

The above may also be true for humans, especially in certain brain regions. But it is hard to conduct these studies because they require physically inserting a temperature probe into the brain. 

Fastest measured ramps in humans (first 60 s)

ContextMethodWindowΔTApprox. rate (dT/dt)
Task activation on exposed cortex (motor/sensory)Infrared thermography (intraoperative, awake)5–7 s+0.04–0.08 °C0.34–0.96 °C min⁻¹
Visual cortex after stimulation¹H‑MRS thermometry (intact skull)~2 min post‑stimulus+0.40 °C≈0.2 °C min⁻¹ (over that interval)

One of the main ways to cool the brain is evaporative cooling from the forehead. Have you noticed how much cognitive work is done in cooler climates with relatively low humidity? Seattle, Bay Area. Evaporative cooling works an order of magnitude better in cool and dry than in hot and humid climates. Those in hot and humid regions don't stand a chance - their brains are constantly heat throttled to some degree.

I'm a software developer by profession. I have researched this topic for years. I have many other weird but powerful ideas. 

Contact me if you want to work with me. I am interesting in forming a startup based on this idea or other ideas of mine.