Brain temperature may be important for investigating pathology and cerebroprotective effects of pharmaceuticals and hypothermia. Two methods for estimating temperature using 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy are described: a partially water-suppressed binomial sequence and non-water-suppressed point-resolved spectroscopy. Relative to N-acetylaspartate (Naa), water chemical shift (delta H2O-Naa) in piglet brain depended linearly on temperature from 30 degrees to 40 degrees C: temperature was 286.9-94.0 delta H2O-Naa degrees C. Thalamic temperature in six normal infants was 38.1 degrees +/- 0.4 degree C indicating that local brain temperature could be estimated with adequate sensitivity for studying pathologic and therapeutic changes.