Professor Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague has discovered evidence that infection by intracellular protozoan parasite toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) causes changes in human personalities.
He found the women infected with toxoplasma spent more money on clothes and were consistently rated as more attractive. “We found they were more easy-going, more warm-hearted, had more friends and cared more about how they looked,” he said. “However, they were also less trustworthy and had more relationships with men.”
By contrast, the infected men appeared to suffer from the “alley cat” effect: becoming less well groomed undesirable loners who were more willing to fight. They were more likely to be suspicious and jealous. “They tended to dislike following rules,” Flegr said.
Why the cat parallels? The parasite infects cats and is passed on to rats by cat feces. In rats it creates the proverbial fatal attraction.
T. gondii makes rats more susceptible to being caught by cats.
LONDON - Scientists have discovered a parasite that inhabits rats and makes them feel a suicidal attraction for cats. The parasite, which infects as many as one in five rats, can also affect humans.
The parasite, nicknamed the love bug but scientifically known as Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan, infects the rodent's brain, inducing an effect similar to Prozac so it becomes less fearful of cats.
It might be too late to get rid of Fluffy. U College London T. gondii researcher Dr Dominique Soldati says once infected you have it for life and it gradually grows.
“Once you are infected you cannot get rid of this parasite and the numbers of them slowly grow over the years,” she said. “It’s not a nice thought.”The parasite apparently evolved to help cats eat rats.
The scientists set up a wild enclosure for rats, with different smells in each corner. Rats infected by the parasite were attracted to the smell of cat urine.
The minds of infected rats are subtly altered so that they become less able to avoid getting captured and eaten by cats. Cat feces that are eaten by rats serve as a way to spread the disease to rats that the cats can then eventually capture and eat.
As this review of the molecular biology of T. gondii demonstrate scientists are looking for ways to stop and destroy this parasite once it has infected humans.
T. gondii has evolved a remarkable ability to survive in its host, typically for long periods of time, with minimal pathogenicity and in a variety of cell types. However, the mechanisms by which this obligate intracellular parasite becomes a master at manipulating the structures and pathways of the host cell for its own nefarious purposes to create a hospitable environment remain difficult to analyse in the background of a nucleated host cell.
T. gondii infection is especially dangerous for children born to women who become infected during pregnancy.
Toxoplasma, mainly transmitted by consumption of contaminated meat or by cat faeces, chronically infects half the world's population. The pathogen is a leading cause of neurological birth defects in children born to mothers who contract the disease during pregnancy and can cause fatal toxoplasmosis encephalitis in immunosuppressed patients.
Scientists hope that understanding the gene's function will aid efforts to develop drugs that target and block the way Apicomplexa parasites penetrate host cells.
Women who want to have children should probably give away Fluffy to post-menopausal women who show signs of promiscuity and large tasteful wardrobes.
But what about the threat to Western Civilization? Cats are making our women less trusthworthy and more superficial while they are making men into scruffy loners who are unwilling to follow rules. If some terrorist group was releasing pathogens that had this effect we'd be hunting them down and killing them without mercy (assuming the FBI and CIA could find them - the anthrax mail case may never be solved). But since kitties are fluffy, make cute purring sounds, and occasionally rub up against people's legs they are considered adorable by many. This leaves them free to operate in plain sight to undermine Western Civilization while every single one of them affects an air of total indifference and disinterest.
Update: Christopher Genovese has taken the time to read some of Jaroslav Flegr's research papers and presents an excellent analysis on the question whether Flegr's work has discovered a real effect on humans. My take on it is that while it isn't clear that Flegr has proved his case it is plausible in part because the human domestication of cats happened fairly recently (in ancient Egypt if memory serves) in human evolution. So a deleterious effect on humans of a cat parasite seems like something humans wouldn't have had time to evolve to develop an effective response. By contrast, the likelihood of getting harmful parasites from dogs would seem lower since humans have been living with dogs for a much longer period of time.
By Randall Parker at 2003 September 30 04:28 PM Biological Mind | TrackBackIt's very intresting theory. I've read about it before and saw a TV program about it. I think that's intresting and it may help;-) Thanx for the article
Maybe this an infection like that one is what makes some people like cats. There has to be some explanation.
Wow. And I thought my tendency to "dislike following rules" was a result of my family's history of stubborness. Now, I can blame the fact that I grew up with two cats!
I have three cats; I could have been a NASA scientist. Drats!
Anyhow, I would be curious to find out if infected mothers can pass it to their children. Also, does anyone here see a phsiological explanation for the Egyptian feline fetish in the works?
Paul
Is anyone checking with dogs for the perfect defence?
("Paging the scritwriters for 'Cats Versus Dogs II'....)
Paul, I almost added a comment ot the original article about how this explains the collapse of Pharaonic civilization. Maybe Cleopatra gave Caesar or Marc Anthony cats to take back to Rome that eventually caused the collapse of the Roman Empire as well.
Surely we are now on to the feline plot. But since I've already been exposed to a great many cats I fear it is too late for me. I can only hope medical science will find a solution before my mind is too far gone.
I believe that Paul Ewald's book, "Plague Time", may also have mentioned toxoplasmosis. He is convinced that many of the "lifestyle diseases of aging", which are prevalent in the civilized world, are actually caused, or partly caused, by bacteria and viruses. There are several of these diseases mentioned, guaranteed to increase your paranoia. (And schizophrena itself may be a "slow" infectious disease.)
Now, is anyone wondering whether rat droppings in grain supplies, infected with toxoplasmosis, could make an entire society crazy enough to just collapse, or depressed and possessed of such poor judgement, as to drink or drug themselves to death? And, what happens when toxoplasmosis, alcohol, illegal injectable drugs, and the AIDS pandemic start working synergistically?
Is it time to start stockpiling food, guns, antibiotics, and razor wire in your bomb shelter?
This seems to lend weight to the theory that everything about us - personality, intelligence, talent, preferences - is a result of nothing more than brain chemistry.
Well, the paranoid can get checked and if the infection is there it can be treated with pyrimethamine and sulfonamides.
After I started reading this, at times I was convinced it was fictitious and intentionally humorous. Then again, truth can be pretty strange and funny sometimes.
Look, there are theories that rain triggered a psychedelic reaction to the food the French ate that lead to the Fr. Rev. I don't think it is that much of a stretch to think the same could happen via polluted food supplies.
Paul
There seems to be an anti-cat feeling to the post.I have cats and keep them hygenic.
You cannot stop what nature has planned-get rid of cats they all become unkempt strays,diseases adapt to fight-take mad cow,aids etc,at least we can be treated for t p m.
Rich, I've liked all the cats that I've had. As a child I had persians and angoras that used to sleep on my bed or even along side when it was the depth of winter. I've had cats more recently too. I like cats. Though I happen to like dogs more than cats and Australian Shepherds most of all. Heck even my last Aussie liked cats and didn't ever try to hurt the cats I had.
As for the tone of my post: others thought it was a joke. But they really do appear to carry a parasite that causes harm to at least some people who are infected by it. I'm not going to ignore that fact just because I like cats. Keeping them "hygenic" is not going to keep you from getting T. gondii. But you probably already have T. gondii and so do I.
T. gondii gotten from cats is probably what is causing brain damage in people with advanced AIDS. It is also causing smaller alterations in personality among the general human population.
Look, there are theories that rain triggered a psychedelic reaction to the food the French ate that lead to the Fr. Rev. I don't think it is that much of a stretch to think the same could happen via polluted food supplies.
The fungus in question is called "Rye Ergot" and it creates hallucinagenic compounds when it grows on wet rye crops.
I thought cat owners were weird from living with cute adorable furry little psychopaths.
check this out-http://www.newwoman.co.uk/sex_relation/loveLife/loveLife_0081.asp
I've always found that my pussies do strange things to my personality.
You are what you eat...
Animals with straight hair over there bodies are very easy to catch
bacteria that can cause a plague among man. Cats and dogs can
pick up these diseases by you justing wlaking them. It is always walking
in the grass and dirt with there hair on there bodies expossed. To have an
hairy animal living around you will make the human race more vunerable to plauges.
You need to watch this big flu outbreak. If you want more info log on to cbs.com
and cnn.com.under Diseases passed to humans by domestic pets. I love the human
race more than i love dogs. I am doing a report that shows that 4.5 million people
are attacted by dogs in a year. 70% percent of the vitims were the pets owner's
childern. If dogs are man's best friend than i don't need friends like that.
Animals go extinct for a reason. Instead of living with beast among us, we
could give the money to the children,homeless,widows,orphans,bums and any
other human. The time spent feeding a dog,cleaning a dog's shit, cleaning a dogs
hair, walking a dog and keeing a dog healthy you could help an orphan child.
There are 84,000,000 dogs in this country. What if something happened and
you could not feed this animal it would most defintly turn on you. So, if
this country has a major disater we would have to fight of our on pets.
Animals are not humans and live under the rules of Survival of the Fittest.
They are trained to expected a certain gift for acting a certain way.
Now if you are not feeding your dog, all the training in the world could not
save you from Kill or be Killed. I would rather have a human as a friend because
when there is no food we have free will to think things through.
I'd suggest this parasite, if it's done anything, has had a hugely beneficial effect on humanity. The research suggests that it changes male behaviour to make men unreasonable. As George Bernard Shaw said, in Man & Superman, ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’
That would suggest it's not a coincidence the people who domesticated the cat were the very same people who created the world's first civilisation (probably). From those times to these times we have infection, unreasonableness and progress: and now we have a mechanism.
Dylan Harris,
Unreasonableness comes in many forms. A determination to go against the odds to figure out how to mold the environment to one's wishes is just one drive of many.
Though I question Bernard Shaw's formulation. Seems more reasonable to me to want to change one's environment to make it more compatible with oneself than to modify oneself to fit into one's environment. Human genetic engineering is, after all, still beyond our reach and was the stuff of fantasy when Bernard Shaw wrote.
People are always looking for what connects us to one another...how do relationships form? What makes two people more proximal or more intimate and others more distal or more like strangers? Is it so hard to believe that the exchange of microorganisms is a mechanism of this phenomenon? Could it be that if we exchange or share similar microorganisms, whose presence undeniably affects whatever it inhabits, that we should eventually begin to exhibit similar traits or behaviors? Humans tend to discredit things they cannot see...this is the ignorance that defeats us and keeps us from truly understanding how we are connected to life.
What does make men unreasonable?
Perfect system of nature- man-
has an opened enter for parasites of civilisation - his mind(brain);
There are viruses in Information System (IS)(computers),and parasites in our mind have activity similar viruses in IS (its try mask their presence in mind processes).
To control our body - no need words, phrases...
To be happy - no need words, phrases...
Our right decisions - result of activity our brain or "help" from good daemons (I say: from good people or even souls of our pre-parents) but bad daemons could prepare good goals that its say to us in our brain,create motivation,etc. but make conflicts around us (Any kind of conflicts is attack of many parasites - crasy bad daemons,agressive ghosts,highly agressive creatures and I could say which persons have activity as these daemons)
Group of parasites has activity as mafia
(and rules), but their activity against people
is activity of fascist underground group(and they attack best of men or who is alone and strategy to isolate some person of people is their strategy).Goals of parasites are resouces,money,power,etc.
The imminent collapse of world civilization is becoming apparent to more people as the economy grinds down and international frictions accelerate. Even so, most people still
believe the overall decline is due to some kind of plot, political bungling or economic miscalculation.
Whatever they believe, they are still blind to the real root cause of every socio-economic and political upheaval; a surplus of
people, and worse, a surplus of inferior people.
There is posibility to fight against viruses in human brain, in social behaviour...
Be true in everything and human behaviour..
But knowledge is already power.
What is way which parasites come in?
I could describe their attack as intrusion,
direct invasion in brain (look like that parasites put mobile phones in our brain)but sometimes not only phones.
Changing of face is result on face of intrusion one or two agressive person-mutants
Car accedent is result when these parasites-mutants try to control of our body or create problem (To Block) for our behaviour-controling of our own body
You could even interact on their local presence (on face),etc