Taste of power goes to the head, then muscles

Gargling Gatorade could clinch the gold for future Olympians. A new study establishes a neural link between mouth and muscles that slips right past the gut, producing additional power output with nothing more than the promise of an impending nutritional boost.

“What we’ve uncovered is a way in which we can shortcut our sensory circuitry, and to fool our body, maybe, briefly, into thinking the tank is full,” says study coauthor Nicholas Gant of the University of Auckland in New Zealand.