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The Effects of the Cat Mind-Control Parasite Might Be Permanent

This is bad news for mice and some human schizophrenics.
Image: cloudzilla/Creative Commons

You all should know a bit by now about the cat-based “mind control” parasite Toxoplasm gondii. It is popular internet lore: cats make people crazy, literally. Infection by the parasite is linked to incidences of schizophrenia and other behavioral changes, like being bad at driving. The wide range of potential changes in human behavior makes it difficult to see the potential benefit for cats, but with mice it’s a bit clearer: infection makes mice less scared of cats, who of course like to eat mice.

This is not new information. It’s been known that Toxoplasm gondii negates fear responses in rodents since a 2000 study finding that the parasite was even capable of turning an “innate aversion into an imprudent attraction” in addition to merely silencing a highly valuable instinct. A new study out in the journal PLOS One adds an alarming feature to the phenomenon: the change may be permanent. The researchers found that even months after the infection, when the parasite itself is no longer detectable, the new behavior persisted. It would appear that Toxoplasm gondii is capable of not just controlling but full-on rewiring of the brain.

The implication is that this happens in humans as well. If so, it points to at least some portion of schizophrenic behaviors in human beings being “fixed,” according to a Nature News post. This doesn’t mean that schizophrenia is suddenly untreatable, but that treatments targeting Toxoplasm gondii (or the brain cysts caused by it) in the hope of alleviating schizophrenic behavior might not be effective. The nature of the relationship between the parasite and behavior might not even have to do with cysts at all but some other, so far unknown thing. Your cat is yet another step ahead.

@everydayelk