From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Maybe the neocons have a valid excuse. The Toxoplasma didn't like Saddam?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060211/sc_space/mindcontrolbyparasites

Mind Control by Parasites

Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma, parasites
in the body-and the brain. Remember that. Toxoplasma gondii is a common
parasite found in the guts of cats; it sheds eggs that are picked up by
rats and other animals that are eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts in
the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts, including in the brain.

Since cats don't want to eat dead, decaying prey, Toxoplasma takes the
evolutionarily sound course of being a "good" parasite, leaving
the rats perfectly healthy. Or are they?

Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have been
subtly altered. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that healthy
rats will prudently avoid areas that have been doused with cat urine. In
fact, when scientists test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of
cat urine to induce neurochemical panic.

However, it turns out that Toxoplasma-ridden rats show no such reaction. In
fact, some of the infected rats actually seek out the cat urine-marked
areas again and again. The parasite alters the mind (and thus the behavior)
of the rat for its own benefit.

If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans?

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (Associate Director for Laboratory Research at the
Stanley Medical Research Institute) noticed links between Toxoplasma and
schizophrenia in human beings, approximately three billion of whom are
infected with T. gondii:

  a.. Toxoplasma infection is associated with damage to astrocytes, glial
cells which surround and support neurons. Schizophrenia is also associated
with damage to astrocytes.
  b.. Pregnant women with high levels of antibodies to Toxoplasma are more
likely to give birth to children who will develop schizophrenia.
  c.. Human cells raised in petri dishes, and infected with Toxoplasma, will
respond to drugs like haloperidol; the growth of the parasite stops.
Haloperidol is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia. Dr. Torrey
got together with the Oxford scientists, to see if anything could be done
about those parasite-controlled rats that were driven to hang around cat
urine-soaked corners (waiting for cats). According to a recent press
release, haloperidol restores the rat's healthy fear of cat urine. In fact,
antipsychotic drugs were as effective as pyrimethamine, a drug that
specifically eliminates Toxoplasma.

Are parasites like Toxoplasma subtly altering human behavior? As it turns
out, science fiction writers have been thinking about whether or not
parasites could alter a human being's behavior, or even take control of a
person. In his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters, Robert Heinlein wrote about
alien parasites the size of dinner plates that took control of the minds of
their hosts, flooding their brains with neurochemicals. In this excerpt, a
volunteer strapped to a chair allows a parasite to be introduced; the
parasite rides him, taking over his mind. Under these conditions, it is
possible to interview the parasite; however, it refuses to answer until
zapped with a cattle prod.

  He reached past my shoulders with a rod. I felt a shocking, unbearable
pain. The room blacked out as if a switch had been thrown.. I was split
apart by it; for the moment I was masterless.

  The pain left, leaving only its searing memory behind. Before I could
speak, or even think coherently for myself, the splitting away had ended
and I was again safe in the arms of my master...

  The panic that possessed me washed away; I was again filled with an
unworried sense of well being...

  "What are you?" "We are the people... We have studied you
and we know your
ways... We come," I went on, "to bring you peace.. and
contentment-and the joy of-of surrender." I hesitated again;
"surrender" was not the right word. I struggled with it the way
one struggles with a poorly grasped foreign language. "The joy,"
I repeated, "-the joy of . . .nirvana." That was it; the word
fitted. I felt like a dog being patted for fetching a stick; I wriggled
with pleasure.


Still not sure that parasites can manipulate the behavior of host
organisms? Consider these other cases:

  a.. The lancet fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum forces its ant host to
attach to the tips of grass blades, the easier to be eaten. The fluke needs
to get into the gut of a grazing animal to complete its life cycle.
  b.. The fluke Euhaplorchis californiensis causes fish to shimmy and jump
so wading birds will grab them and eat them, for the same reason.
  c.. Hairworms, which live inside grasshoppers, sabotage the grasshopper's
central nervous system, forcing them to jump into pools of water, drowning
themselves. Hairworms then swim away from their hapless hosts to continue
their life cycle.

Not all science-fictional parasites are harmful; read about the Crosswell
tapeworm from Brian Aldiss' 1969 story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (the
basis for the Kubrick/Spielberg film AI), which keeps people who overeat
from becoming obese. Not to mention robots based on parasites. Read press
release on evidence for link between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia, Suicidal
grasshoppers. Story via blogger Carl Zimmer and his readers.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5