Kevin Lafferty, a United States Geological Survey scientist at UC Santa Barbara has recently published a speculative article in ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology’. Lafferty draws attention to a small parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, that reproduces in cats and alters the behaviour of small rodents as part of its life cycle.
The typical journey of the parasite involves a cat and its prey, starting as eggs shed in an infected cat’s feces, inadvertently eaten by a warm-blooded animal, such as a rat. The infected rat’s behavior alters so that it becomes more active, less cautious and more likely to be eaten by a cat, where the parasite completes its life cycle. Many other warm-blooded vertebrates may be infected by this pathogen. After producing usually mild flu-like symptoms in humans, the parasite tends to remain in a dormant state in the brain and other tissues.
Once the parasite has entered the human host, there could be a tendency towards mass neurosis if a large proportion of the population is infected. This is a fascinating theory, though one remains daunted by the experimental hurdles that the speculation would have to conquer, in shifting from observed psychological effect to becoming a statistical cause in cultural patterns across large population samples.
If this is true, then Freud may never have invented psychoanalysis, if the neurotics that he studied had not loved cats.
It is a well know fact that cats mess with your head 🙂
Toxo is also reported to reduce sensitivity of smell, which is why cat addicts aren’t grossed out by the litter boxes.
I always thought Freud was due to a lack of pussy, not an excess of cat.
Neuroses would tend to make a person less adventurous, not more. The picture that comes to mind is a worried, depressed character sitting in their bathrobe on the sofa hour after hour with a cat curled up in their lap.
Say, wait a minute—maybe there’s something to this theory after all.
Nick, Veryretired. Thanks, you’ve both made me laugh. Cheers.
This is why I got my USB-controlled missile launcher.
If the cats made me neurotic, I only wanted to return the favor.
This also explains why the correlation of cat ownership to political stance stats show the irrational left in the US are hopeless prisoners of the great cat parasite conspiracy.
Could this be used as grounds to void their ability to vote in elections?
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
toxoplasmosis is a special form in which an unborn child is infected via the placenta. This is the reason that pregnant women should be checked for Toxoplasma antibodies. A positive titer indicates previous exposure and immunity and largely ensures the unborn baby’s safety.
hmm interesting
Studies have found that toxoplasmosis is associated with an increased car accident rate, roughly doubling or tripling the chance of an accident relative to uninfected people.[4][5] This may be due to the decreased reaction times that are associated with infection.[5] “If our data are true then about a million people a year die just because they are infected with toxoplasma,” the researcher Jaroslav Flegr told The Guardian.[6] The data shows that the risk decreases with time after infection, but is not due to age.[4] Ruth Gilbert, medical coordinator of the European Multicentre Study on Congenital Toxoplasmosis, told BBC News Online these findings could be due to chance, or due to social and cultural factors associated with toxoplasma infection.[7]
Oh, sure. Just when we’re having a nice, fun discussion, someone comes along and screws it up with facts.
great… just when i thought fluoride was !llum!nat!’s strongest tool…..