Cat Parasites COMPEL you!

Can a common cat parasite account for part -- even if only a very small part -- of the cultural differences seen around the world?

The parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, has been transmitted indirectly from cats to roughly half the people on the planet, and it has been shown to affect human personalities in different ways.

link

Another study sites:

Women seem to become more intelligent, outgoing, conscientious, sexually promiscuous, and kind; changes in men seem to cause opposite trends. All humans tend to be more prone to feelings of guilt.

link

Toxoplasma, is "frighteningly amazing." It can change the personality of a rat so much that the rat surrenders itself to a cat, just as the parasite wanted. The parasite's eggs are shed in a cat's feces. A rat comes along, eats the feces, and becomes infected. The behavior of the rat undergoes a dramatic change, (decrease in their natural fear of cat odors). The cat eats the rat, and the parasite completes its life cycle.

"This is something that many parasites do," Lafferty says. "Many parasites manipulate hosts' behavior."

Question:

"We have a parasite in our brain that is trying to get transmitted to a cat," Lafferty says. "This changes an individual's personality."

If enough of us are infected and undergo personality changes, will that also alter our combined personalities or our culture?

A recent study explores the possibility that T. gondii may have effects at a cultural level in countries where many people are infected.

I've posted highlights from these two articles but there's much more and it's all a good read.

Fascinating stuff this...

To think - not only do our personalities change due to this parasite, but in turn, as a result, our culture morphs and dances to the tune of the invisible beast - the parasite.

hehehe
Cool huh

peace

Edit to Add:

I wonder if these women - have T Toxo!




[edit on 10-6-2010 by silo13]

It is very simply a Woman's maternal instinct to nurture.

In both of these cases in this news report, they both talk of protecting these animals.

Note that both of these women dont' have children for they both placed their careers ahead of beginning a family.

The cats ARE their surrogate children.

Once again , we humans as animals are not that different.

Case in point are our two dogs, a boy and a girl.

The girl dog's favorite toys are her little stuffed animals which we have named her "Puppies" for as she is spayed, she hasn't any real puppies of her own.
These stuffed animals are her surrogate puppies.
She actually Won most them from her championship dog agility prowess.( She just got another 1st place - blue ribbon BTW)

The boy dog's favorite toy is his baseball. Which incites his instinctive prey drive to hunt and kill.

In fact we have to keep her stuffed animals away from the boy dog because he will actually steal them and hide them in his crate later destroying them by pulling out all of their stuffing.


All in all these two Women are really no different from the examples I just cited but are merely exhibiting their fundamental instinctive maternal behavior upon these surrogate children due to their not having any children of their own.

reply to post by silo13


Yep..found this out a few years ago..totally explains A LOT about me.
I no longer have my kitties.

reply to post by AccessDenied

Yep..found this out a few years ago..totally explains A LOT about me.
I no longer have my kitties.

I was thinking of having myself tested actually.
I've spent a lot of time with cats, abandoned, sick ones, etc.
At one point I had over 60.
I had a huge farm and could support them. Got the them spay/neutered as i could, but, people just kept dropping off cats and kittens! Heck, every time I yelled "Kitty Kitty' one (or a few) more would come running!

But back to the parasite.

Yeah, I think I'll have myself tested. Enough said.

I presume you 'came down' with this problem?
If so, I hope you're feeling better...

reply to post by nh_ee

All in all these two Women are really no different from the examples I just cited but are merely exhibiting their fundamental instinctive maternal behavior upon these surrogate children due to their not having any children of their own.

Agreed.
But it could also be a symptom of having the cat parasite disease that changes their personalities too!

BTW - Cool to your dog, and you for the agility Blue!

peace

na i think its rubbish.

2nd line.

These people could not work out that males can be passive and have no interest in sex, so how can planks of wood tell us this theory is true, when they cannot work out little things.

I knew there had to be a logical reason for my dislike for cats.
My wife has always attributed it to the Neanderthal genes she assumed I must posses.

This is a remarkable subject though. When I heard about it a few years ago, I did some research on behavior modification in the hosts of parasites. It is really fascinating. There are certain parasites that infect crabs and in effect turn them into zombies that neglect all all natural self preservation and exist merely to propagate the parasites life cycle.


I had a post about it here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Checked the symptoms for a man... looks like I don't have it.

This maybe an odd statement, but sense it is usually men who take part in war, could this be the reason for war? The symptoms for men are aggressiveness, and I think one of them was not thinking before doing an action.

en.wikipedia.org...

There's another link for you.

Never knew about this but its quite interesting. This explains some of the crazy cat lady behavior I have witnessed in the past.

I personally have never owned a cat because I can't stand how they go to the litter box then want to rub fecal particles on you...eeeeewwww

I tolerate cats, other peoples cats, and some of those animals like me but they just aren't as clean as dogs for that one reason.

I read this story a while back...

From what I vaguely remember, this parasite live in the human body for LIFE.
Meaning there is no 'known' way to get rid of it.
It creates some kind of cocoon to shield it from our anti-bodies.
So if it alters your personality, it does so for your entire existence.

funny
I made a joke the other day about cats being our masters
well
I was close
S&F

I had it when I was young. I was three weeks in hospital with it.
I don´t remember if they really cured it or cured only symptoms of it. But I remember that they were at least little puzzled with it.

I sort of disagree with this research. They have formed a few hypothesis but I don't know if it's really based on factual proven scientific ironclad evidence.

My wife and I have a daughter called " Kitty". She also goes by Miss Piggy, Little One, and sometimes Vampire Kitty. She's knows all her names. She's an American short hair tabby. She will be 6 this year.

The wife says I spoil her too much. So I share my fried chicken, and my steak with her. Always. She's a daddy's girl alright.. she won't to her mommy or even let her feed her if I'm around. Unless she is trying to wake me too early by pawing at me and I call for Genny to feed her then she will turn tail and let my wife feed her, but only on my command.

She always snuggles up with daddy at night, never mommy. Daddy doesn't mint when he's ATS'ing and she comes and lays down on his arm/keyboard as long as he can still type.

According to this research if I had this bug, I would be affected just the opposite. I do these things for my Little One because she gives daddy lots of love and she is a very good kitty. It's hard to say No to such a cure ball of fluff.

This is my 2nd. My first I got when I was 18 and she, Bubbles was my best friend for 18 years until she died. I swore I'd never get another.. didn't want to replace her you see, but Genny wanted one so I found Kitty for her.. only it turns out Kitty had other ideas on who her master would be.

Yep, Kitty has me well trained and she is my proud owner. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"The parasite's eggs are shed in a cat's feces. A rat comes along, eats the feces, and becomes infected. The behavior of the rat undergoes a dramatic change, (decrease in their natural fear of cat odors). The cat eats the rat, and the parasite completes its life cycle."



its a good thing i dont eat cats, or rats, or cat poop.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye

ts a good thing i dont eat cats, or rats, or cat poop.

I was wondering when someone was going to say that.

As much as 50% of the human population in the United States and 20% to 80% of all domestic animals are infected with Toxoplasma, harboring its cyst form.

These are excreted in the feces for two to three weeks. Then they may become spores, and become infectious to other animals, including humans. Most exposed cats shed oocysts during acute Toxoplasma infection, but not after. Oocysts are very hardy and can survive in moist shaded soil or sand for months.

Now we just have to make sure you don't eat dirt either!

peace

Originally posted by silo13
reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye

 

ts a good thing i dont eat cats, or rats, or cat poop.

I was wondering when someone was going to say that.

As much as 50% of the human population in the United States and 20% to 80% of all domestic animals are infected with Toxoplasma, harboring its cyst form.

These are excreted in the feces for two to three weeks. Then they may become spores, and become infectious to other animals, including humans. Most exposed cats shed oocysts during acute Toxoplasma infection, but not after. Oocysts are very hardy and can survive in moist shaded soil or sand for months.

Now we just have to make sure you don't eat dirt either!

peace

yeah i kinda knew, when my sis was pregnant she got rid of her cat, this was what she said when i asked why.

but on the subject of your facts i just gotta say, you know 90% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

For that matter, come to think of it and as to why I feel that this is simply a natural maternal instinct to protect and nurture.

Look at all of the cases we have seen in which another animal will raise another species of animal as their very own !

That isn't a disease per se. It's simply called love and nurturing.

Here's what I was talking about with our dogs, and for a good laugh for all ATS members !

Here is the girl with her "Puppy". One of many I might add.





And here she is in action, practicing her sport of agility jumping and how she wins puppies !

I have told my Wife, as a joke we should put a small cape on her !!!

actually there are about half a dozen parasites that are known to affect the behaviour of their hosts. For example Schistocephalus Solidus attacks the stickleback and makes it swim closerto the surface thereby increasing the chance it being eaten by a waterbird within which it matures.

[edit on 10-6-2010 by Tiger5]

reply to post by silo13


I was referring to this-

Women seem to become more intelligent, outgoing, conscientious, sexually promiscuous, and kind;

Originally posted by Sparky63
I knew there had to be a logical reason for my dislike for cats.
My wife has always attributed it to the Neanderthal genes she assumed I must posses.

This is a remarkable subject though. When I heard about it a few years ago, I did some research on behavior modification in the hosts of parasites. It is really fascinating. There are certain parasites that infect crabs and in effect turn them into zombies that neglect all all natural self preservation and exist merely to propagate the parasites life cycle.


I had a post about it here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

OH NOES!
ZZZOOOOMMMMBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZ!

j/k seriously though...kinda makes you think.

and is there really a test for this? i want one.
although i've pretty much decided that my whole family must have gotten it long ago...because we are straight nuts...the whole lot of us.