How Sports Drinks Effect Mouse Behavior

Brandon Lyons

Freeport High School Freeport, NY USA

Introduction Recently more and more athletes have traded in the water cooler for a Gatorade cooler

but how is this affecting them. Is it really performance enhancing or is it just a sham? The project used mice to depict the effects of extended use of Gatorade on performance and behavior.

Abstract This project describes how Gatorade affects mouse behavior. Traditionally Gatorade is

used to enhance the performance of athletes but modern day it is just consumed as a beverage. How is this effecting behavior? According to observation as Gatorade levels increased so did mouse activity. A logical explanation for such is increased energy due to an increase in carbohydrate consumption as a direct result from consuming Gatorade. A correlation with Gatorade and intelligence was based on the fact of increased escape attempts. Overall it can be concluded that Gatorade can be used for sports and school.

Methods Gatorade Dosage: The water bottle used for the mouse hydration was dumped and cleaned with every change of concentration to make the data collected more accurate. The water bottle came with a scale in inches by the use of simple arithmetic percentages were able to be formed. The maze: Each run was started at three different points but in random order so the order of turns could not be remembered. At the end of the maze food was use as a reward for going through the maze.

Discussion

Several problems did occur with the experiment the specimen did escape from its quarters four known times and has had many more attempts. There is a chance that some of the recorded test data may be in accurate due to the reasoning that the specimen may have been exposed to unknown forces. There is also a chance this may not be true because the specimen returned voluntarily to its quarters providing reasoning that there was nothing of sustenance out side of its quarters.

Conclusions The experiment proved that Gatorade increased activity levels which can cause distractions in a class room setting it is preferred that only athletes consume Gatorade.