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Parasites Makes Us Dumber or Sexier
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Dec 30, 2006 04:41 AM
from the that-explains-hollywood-zing dept.
from the that-explains-hollywood-zing dept.
odie_q writes "It has long been known that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite alters its host's behavior, but now it seems the way it alters it depends on the sex of the host. From the article: 'A common parasite can increase a women's attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says ... Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls.'"
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Mind Control Parasites in Half of All Humans 625 comments
iiii writes "According to a Yahoo News
story, half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma,
a parasite shown to alter the brain function of rats, inducing them into behavior that benefits the parasite but is suicidal for the rat. So what affect does it have on humans? Article comes complete with Heinlein 'Puppet Masters' reference. I call dibs on using Toxoplasma as a name for my rock band."
[+]
Cell Phones Aren't Killing Bees After All 253 comments
radioweather writes "A couple of weeks ago, there was a nutty idea discussed in The Independent that claimed the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones was causing bees to become disoriented, preventing them from returning to the hive. The flimsy cell phone argument was used to explain Colony Collapse Disorder. Today the LA Times reports that researchers at UC San Francisco have uncovered what they believe to be the real culprit: a parasitic fungus. Other researchers said Wednesday that they too had found the fungus, a single-celled parasite called Nosema ceranae, in affected hives from around the country."
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Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Pish Tosh (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Ah HA! (Score:5, Funny)
Goa'uld tag... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Goa'uld tag... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Interesting effects, interesting causes (Score:4, Interesting)
Things such as this hints to how our minds work, which is possibly one of the most fascinating things in the universe (:
Beer == Parasite ??? (Score:5, Funny)
Bicamerial mind breakdown (Score:4, Interesting)
links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Consci
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash [wikipedia.org]
Also if you haven't read snow crash, you must do so immediately.
Re:Bicamerial mind breakdown (Score:4, Interesting)
The barriers are required for consciousness as your first link clearly describes. If you want to see what the world looks like without the barriers then injest some psilocybe. You won't actually be doing any reasoning though. The next true phase of mind evolution will be the combination of computers with the brain, as to how that will happen, I don't know.
Parent
Yeah sure (Score:4, Funny)
But can we play the holophone? (Score:4, Funny)
So how come I can't play the holophone [futurama-madhouse.com.ar]?
Ahh Toxoplasma gondii (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a really quite fascinating paper - I recommend tracking it down if you can get access. Here's how it goes: Toxoplasmia gondii is adapated to live in cats and reproduces in felid intestinal cells & is shed, encysted, in their feaces. Then it can directly infect cats who come into contact with the cysts, or it encysts in brains of smaller mammals, and moves up the food chain as they get eaten until it hits a cat, and can reproduce again.
Fascinatingly, T.g. appears to affect rodent behavior to increase predation risk - i.e. the rodents become more active, less fearful of cat/cat smells, and have increased dopamine levels (which supposedly leads to novelty seeking behavior and neuroticism-type behaviors, or at least, they do in humans).
Despite humans not having any major cat predators, it could still affect us as a byproduct type of thing. Particularly that whole dopamine increase - this is should increase neuroticism levels.
So - the big question - does prevalence of T.g. correlate with cultural variation in neuroticism in humans? Lafferty finds a fairly strong correlation ( r2 of 0.38 ) between population aggregate neuroticism (as measured by the fairly standard NEO PI-R [wikipedia.org] personality inventory ).
Unfortunately I think the populations he uses for his stats are a little bit suspect (always the problem with worldwide analyses though), but it's definitely worth a read. You should also keep in mind that so far it's only an interesting correlation and not a direct demonstration that T.g. causes large scale cultural differences.
Where can I get it? (Score:5, Funny)
Based on the description, this parasite will turn that ugly girl next door into a hot, promiscuous girl who might stop pepper spraying me! Sign me up for two!
Re:Where can I get it? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Written by a woman? (Score:5, Funny)
What do you mean by more stupid?
Re:Written by a woman? (Score:4, Funny)
Can't resist:
Toxo makes girls sexy - Wikipedia confirms it!
What does netcraft have to say, btw?
Parent
Marketing challenge (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps it's just me, but my first thought after reading the summary was that the best and brightest the world of cosmetics marketing has to offer are probably working on the advertising campaign right now. "New, from L'Oreal: toxoplasmosis, the only parasite derived from cat shit that's /guaranteed/ to make you MORE ATTRACTIVE to the opposite sex. Because you're worth it!"...
Given the crap they already get women to shell out fifty quid for a couple of ounces, parasite-infected cat shit would be a relatively easy sell.
Great Pickup Line (Score:5, Funny)
I need to (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So long, Saddam you worthless shit (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Parasite? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: it belongs to frylock (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Jesus, women are lucky (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but she will take all your stuff.
Parent
Re:Remember, kids! (Score:5, Informative)
The article clearly states that the changed behaviour could be seen after infecting the mice with toxoplasmose and be reversed by treating the infection. So we have something that looks a lot more like a causation and less a pure correlation (with currently unknown relation).
Parent
Re:What are the odds... (Score:5, Informative)
How do you like your steak? Unless your answer is "well done", you are at greater risk for toxoplasmosis than any cat owner.
From wikipedia: "The most common means of transmission to humans is raw or undercooked meat."
Further, based on research it is *extremely* unlikely that you could pick up this parasite from casual contact with cats. Handling cat feces and not washing your hands? Sure. Petting a cat? No way.
From wikipedia: "Although the pathogen has been detected on the fur of cats, it has not been found in an infectious form, and direct infection from handling cats is generally believed to be very rare."
Further, cats must contract the disease from somewhere and are only infectious for a brief period right after contracting the disease. Which means that indoor cats that don't have access to infected prey can't get the disease (except by other transmission methods which are the same for humans). Or, if your cat already has toxoplasmosis, it means that it can't transmit the parasite to you (except for that brief period right after infection.
From wikipedia: "Cats excrete the pathogen in their faeces for a number of weeks after contracting the disease, generally by eating an infected rodent. Even then, cat faeces are not generally contagious for the first day or two after excretion, after which the cyst 'ripens' and becomes potentially pathogenic. Studies have shown that only about 2% of cats are shedding at any one time, and that shedding does not recur even after repeated exposure to the parasite."
Further, the disease *is* treatable. The cysts are resistant to common forms of treatment for parasites (antibiotics). However, there are treatments available which seem to eliminate the cysts.
From wikipedia: "The antibiotic atovaquone has been used to kill Toxoplasma cysts in situ in AIDS patients.[3] In mice, a combination of atovaquone with clindamycin seemed to optimally kill cysts."
Here is a link to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis [wikipedia.org]
Every time a toxoplasmosis article comes up, someone will make a post like this, saying that *for them* cat ownership is simply too risky. This, of course, completely ignores the reality of the situation, where cat ownership is actually far less risky than eating, where mishandling of food or "undercooked" meat (may I be the first to say, yum!) are far more likely to score you an infectious parasite.
Please inform yourself and stop spouting this trollish bullshit.
Taft
Parent