As Finland swelters in the summer heat, I started to wonder why exactly severe heat causes memory loss and overall cognitive confusion. An article in the Journal of Neuroinflammation suggests this is in part due to the activation of non-neuronal cells in the nervous system:
Together, these findings suggest that heat stress can lead to activation of glial cells and induction of inflammatory molecules in the hippocampus, which may act as causative factors for memory loss, neuronal death, and impaired adult neurogenesis.