Love it or hate it, you know the sensation of biting into spicy salsa: the burn, the rush, the sudden sweats (or eye-watering or nose-running). Behold, the power of capsaicin! 

And that power is in fact a burn, not a flavor. Capsaicin doesn’t trigger the gustatory receptors in our taste buds or the olfactory receptors way up in the nasal cavity, so what exactly is it doing to our mouths—and our brains?